SEPT 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 9

GUEST COMENTARY Doug

GUEST COMENTARY Doug Griffith yrs. Fights worth Fighting. Most of our members are unaware as to what we do over here at the union. Any given day you will find us in our office working to resolve whatever issue has jumped up in the last 24 hours. Over the last few weeks, we have been very vocal over a variety of issues that affect all of our members. I know that most do not watch the evening news and do not get to see my interviews or press conferences, but I do plenty of them. If I cannot do it, I have Ken, Ray, or Tim handle it, because it is important to get our message out there to the community. Three weeks ago, we held a press conference and called for the resignation or removal of Dr. Peter Stout with the Forensics Science Center. The Forensics Science Center is now backlogged in every single area in which they conduct analysis and continue to get farther and farther behind. I reached out to him to see what the plan was to catch up on the backlog, but he had no plan. Sexual assault kits are backlogged with an average test time of 308 days. So, if your daughter was sexually assaulted by someone they know, you are still waiting 308+ days just for the testing! On the Forensics Science Center website, it states that gun testing is currently at 215 days, but in an email, he sent out to me, city council, DA’s office, and a Defense Attorney, it will be March of 2025 to test a gun used in a homicide today. 20 months is an unacceptable amount of time to wait on evidence to charge an individual. This makes the department appear inept when it is completely out of our control. I cannot even start to talk about the narcotics issue, but it is the Science Center that is causing the DA to no charge under 4 grams without a test. I will continue to go after the Forensics Science Center until we get real leadership in the right position to fix the backlog. Last week, we found out that Travis Scott is going to be allowed to have two more concerts in Houston. It was just two weeks ago we released the 1200-page report giving the details of the tragic Astroworld concert, then four days later we get word of these concert dates. Not only is it disrespectful to the families of those lost that horrific night, but it is also disrespectful to our officers who worked valiantly to save those crushed DOUG GRIFFITH, HPOU by the crowds that night. It forever changed the lives of many of our officers and we should not be allowing this event back to Houston. We released a statement to the media, and we did at least a dozen interviews on why this should not be allowed in our city again. These are only a few of the big outside battles we are facing, but there are plenty of in-house issues as well that we deal with constantly. We will continue to fight and support our membership and do everything possible to make this department better. Also know, we can’t fix what we don’t know about so do not assume we are aware of every issue. Please call if you have questions or feel that there is something that we need to be aware of. Thanks for all that you do keeping this city safe! 12 The BLUES

The BLUES 13