sfexaminer.com – By: Brent Begin – Examiner Staff Writer
The Police Department has reversed a policy at the DNA-testing portion of its crime lab that used to prioritize cases based on whether there was a suspect, giving crimes such as homicides and rape the highest priority, police Chief George Gascón told the Police Commission.
The decision stems from a case where a homicide inspector actually took DNA samples to an outside lab to circumvent the policy, but not in time to stop a murder suspect from sexually assaulting at least one transgender victim.