LAB PROBLEMS SPOIL LAPD DRUG ARRESTS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Staff shortages and procedural glitches have forced the
Los Angeles Police Department to free up to 300 felony drug suspects so far
this year because officials didn't receive drug analysis results in time for
their arraignments.

Mistakes made while handling evidence and compiling arrest reports have
slowed down how quickly investigators can verify whether seized substances
are illegal drugs, officials said.

Prosecutors need this information so they can file charges within 48 hours
after an arrest, said Detective Norm Lee, a supervising narcotics detective
in the San Fernando Valley Bureau.

Otherwise, a suspect goes free.

``Without the lab results, we don't have a case. We're sending people off
that need to be incarcerated,'' he said.

The problem was noted in an internal report by Chief Bernard C. Parks, the
Daily News of Los Angeles reported Saturday.

``The department is currently releasing a significant number of felony
narcotics suspects without an initial filing as a result of difficulties in
obtaining a formal laboratory analysis of evidence by the morning of
arraignment day,'' Parks said in the report.

``There is reason to believe this problem will become even more severe as a
result of a steady increase in narcotic arrests and changes which may be
required in the narcotic analysis process because of Scientific
Investigation Division's accreditation,'' the chief added.

In some cases, prosecutors are still waiting for drug analysis reports on
arrests made five months ago, said Deputy District Attorney John Perlstein,
who supervises the filing of drug cases in the downtown office, which
handles from 50 to as many as 200 felony drug cases per day.

``I have never seen it this bad,'' Perlstein said. ``We're sitting here with
cases that go back to December and January, where they not only haven't been
able to do the dope test, but in some cases they haven't been able to find
the dope.''

The problem has been worst at the downtown courts, where 50 to 200 felony
drug cases are filed per day, 10 times the average of San Fernando Valley.

Seven criminalists and one supervisor analyze drug evidence downtown, with
two vacancies. An LAPD official speaking on condition of anonymity told the
Los Angeles Daily News that the lab needs four more criminalists to handle
the current caseload. Two more lab positions are proposed in the new city
budget.

Improperly filed evidence has also slowed prosecutors down.

``It's usually caused by an officer not filing the evidence report properly
- -- putting the wrong number on it,'' Perlstein said.

In the first three months of this year, the LAPD filed 10,906 felony drug
cases, up from the 10,527 filed during the same period in 1996.