Mayor Bill White needs to make the Houston Police Department crime lab an independent department in his new budget expected in mid-May.  The mayor took a major step forward last year (when I made the same suggestion) by requiring HPD to present the crime lab budget as a stand-alone segment of its $450 million budget. I believe that separation entirely from the police department is the only way to achieve the layer of independence the crime lab needs to truly function effectively and efficiently.
Once the new department is established,  a new stakeholders committee can discuss creating an independent  regional crime lab to serve the city, county and surrounding communities.  That idea has already drawn support from the mayor, HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, District Attorney Pat Lykos, County Judge Ed Emmett and several Houston City Council members, including Jolanda Jones. I  served on the 2007 stakeholders committee led by crime lab expert  Michael  Bromwich that reviewed the scandalous Houston crime lab. 
That investigation’s conclusion that serious lab problems began because the lab was not an HPD priority  supports the need for a truly independent crime lab. Last month, I highlighted a landmark national forensics study done by the National Academy of Sciences that included sweeping recommendations for improving forensics. One of those urged the establishment of independent crime labs and offered specific suggestions for making them more professional and truly independent, such as blind testing, or regularly and secretly sending one lab’s forensic evidence to another lab to keep labs honest.
Another prominent expert recommends hiring  evidence handlers to shepherd evidence between law enforcement and crime labs without conveying any information about where or how evidence was obtained as well as forbidding forensic experts  from talking to police or prosecutors before conducting tests. An independent crime lab that produces scientific, unbiased results is not a pipedream. It’s urgently needed to repair one of the cornerstones of our criminal justice system and restore public confidence. Police deserve a first-class weapon in the fight against crime. The public deserves a first-class crime lab in the fight for equal justice.
Annise D. Parker is Houston City Comptroller (the second highest elected city official). She is now running for mayor of Houston.