HOUSTON — Scaffolding has been up around HPD’s headquarters for months as exterior issues are addressed but a big evidence room on an upper floor inside that’s getting attention, too.
“The Harris County District Attorney’s Office was notified last week that the HPD Narcotics Evidence Room at 1200 Travis had a problem or issue with rodents,” HCDAO general counsel Joshua Reiss said.
The DA’s office is notifying defense attorneys in more than 3,600 open drug-related cases out of an abundance of caution. Reiss said the specific item rodents infiltrated involves only one active case.
“They got into packaging containing mushrooms,” Reiss said.
New DA Sean Teare, Mayor John Whitmore, HPD Chief Noe Diaz and others alluded to evidence room issues last Friday at a separate facility on Washington Avenue.
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“Just one example, we’ve got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying,” Whitmire said.
“We have notes from a 1947 homicide that we still keep,” Diaz said.
Reiss said it’s not a problem limited to Houston or Harris County.
“Narcotics evidence rooms and evidence rooms in general that are filled to the brims with old evidence, it’s a national issue,” Reiss said.
It’s an issue city leaders, like council member May Nan Huffman who sits on the public safety committee, hope the chief and others get a handle on.
“It seems like he’s already taking steps to change things over at Travis and hopefully he takes this issue very seriously,” Huffman said.
For now, HPD and other agencies have permission from the DA’s office to destroy any drug evidence from cleared cases before 2015.
HPD declined our request to get video inside or outside of the evidence room at 1200 Travis.