Morning, everyone.

For the record, my name is Henry Santana at our city councillor, and I am the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice.

Today is October twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-six, and the exact time is ten twenty-three AM.

This hearing is being recorded.

It is also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcasted on Xfinity Channel Eight, RCN Channel Eighty Two, and Files Channel Nine Six Four.

Bring comments may be sent to the committee email at CCC.gov, and we made part of the record and available to all counselors.

Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing.

Individuals will be called on in order and the order in which they signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber.

If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison, Roncomb at Ron dot com at Boston.gov for the link, and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on Docket Number Zero One Eight Zero.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I

want to note that this year I I filed a budget amendment to allocate $500,000 for equipment and resources for the Boston Police Crime Lab.

My colleagues, however, did not accept this.

I held a hearing with my colleagues here to discuss the challenges that the Boston police crime lab had, including delays in testing of sexual assault kits.

The City of Boston was not meeting the state requirement of testing within 30 days at that time, and has not upgraded their DNA testing techniques to wide screening, which is why the mass state, which is what the mass state police in New York City use.

It's the most advanced testing for sexual assault kits.

During the budget cycle in 2022 2024, we voted internally on an amendment to reallocate one million within the Boston Police Department to support the work of the Boston Police Crime Lab.

This amendment included 700,000 from BPD personnel services to the crime lab to increase the hiring of lab technicians and to fill the director's vacancy and 300,000 from BPD equipment to the crime lab to purchase new sexual assault testing equipment and upgrade DNA testing to Y screening.

Due to the critical nature of this position and concerns of public safety, I wrote a letter

to

both Commissioner Cox and Mayor Will urging them to consider a residency waiver for the director of the crime lab at that time and highlighted the prolonged vacancy of this position.

Challenges within the crime lab.

In

addition, I asked for an increase in the salary range to attract more applicants.

It is critical that the Boston Police Department Crime Lab is drawing the talent and leadership it needs to run effectively.

Today's hearing, it's an important hearing as a follow-up to last year's discussion in reallocation of funding to see if any progress has been made towards hiring personnel and processing sexual assault kits in a timely manner, and whether the crime lab needs additional resources.

In the final analysis, we must support survivors of sexual assault, their families, and the public at large to both ensure that we are testing sexual assault kits within the state mandated 30-day requirement, as well as utilizing the most advanced technology available.

With all the spending we do with the city budget, there is simply no excuse for us as a big city such as Boston to not use the same technology as New York City or even the mass state police.

I'm going to continue to focus on this issue until I'm confident that we have the best crime lab in the country.

We owe it to survivors of sexual assault to make sure we get this right.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank

you, Councillor Flynn.

Um Councillor Murphy, you have the floor.

Thank

you.

Thank you, Chair.

I

would say thank you to the panel, but we don't have one, unfortunately.

Um we say we're the safest city, and in some ways we are,

but

to be the safest city, we also have to make sure that we follow through and solve crimes and when victims and their families, I believe, deserve for their crimes to be investigated and solved with the best technology and with the best support and staff, and our job on the council is to make sure that we allocate funds and support departments and not just give recommendations.

But I I don't I think we need to continue.

So thank you, Council Flynn, for continuing to uplift the need for the sexual assault kits and the staffing in that department to have the best that our residents deserve, and victims

of

these crimes deserve that also.

So here to learn how we can continue to make sure that happens.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Murphy.

Um, Council Fitzgerald, you have the floor.

Thank

you very much,

Chair.

Uh, and thank you to Councillor Flynn uh and Councilor Murphy for bringing this forward.

Uh when we see numbers that do not meet the standard, um, and we see numbers that uh it is it is imperative upon us as a council to question it and seek answers and to see how we can get better.

Um but in order to do that, we do have to make sure that we can get some answers and have a dialogue.