Norton Zeros in on Crime Lab as Necessary Step to Further Lower D.C. Crime Rate- September 21, 2006

Norton Zeros in on Crime Lab as Necessary Step to
Further Lower D.C. Crime Rate at Friday Hearing
September 21, 2006

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that tomorrow's hearing on D.C.'s need for its own crime lab "is really a hearing on how to further lower the crime rate in D.C." She said, "The absence of a crime lab is the untold story of why crime has remained high in the District." Norton asked the Committee on Government Reform for the hearing to be held Friday,September 22, 2006 at 10:00 AM in Room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.Norton asked for the hearing, titledCSI Washington-Does the District Need It's Own Crime Lab?,to focus on the need for more rapid action to get a crime lab for the District. The official government witnesses are: Kenneth Wainstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph DiZinno, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory; Edward Reiskin, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice for the District of Columbia; and Charles Ramsey, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Norton specifically asked that Valencia Mohammed, a resident who lost two sons, be called to testify and to speak for many relatives of crime victims about the anguish of unsolved crimes traceable directly to the absence of city access to its own crime lab. Norton believes that a crime lab is the key to further driving down crime because criminals know that "the city will not get to the evidence anytime soon, if at all." Equally devastating, she says, are the effects of faulty or delayed forensics in civil matters such as insurance claims that deny family members benefits and delay recovery that would ease the anguish of losing a loved one.