Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #611

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
'Drug-addicted Rats'
Destroying Evidence In
Houston Police Lockers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bADJ_HrOJk0
"So much evidence is kept and stored that is no longer needed, that has no impact on the resolution of that charge, that convic- tion or even that inno- cence," Whitmire said.
Peter Stout, head of the Houston Forensic Science Center, said at the same news conference that the large amounts of nar- cotics evidence stored by the city is putting other, unrelat- ed evidence in dan- ger.
"They're edible, they're tasty, they're all kinds of things. You can't store large quantities of drugs without expecting some of these things to happen," Stout said.
He said police have hired exterminators, but the rodent prob-
lem has proven per- sistent.
"They're drug-addict- ed rats. They're tough to deal with," he said.
Officials said only one active case has been affected by the rat problem. They said rodents managed to get into a bag con- taining hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The problem is not limited to the city of Houston. New Orleans Police Department
officials said in March 2024 that drug evi- dence was under assault from pests including rats and cockroaches.
"The rats eating our marijuana, they're all high," Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a meeting of the City Council's Criminal Justice Committee.
By Ben Hooper
Jan. 21 (UPI) -
- Police and city offi- cials in Houston said evidence in storage lockers is being destroyed by "drug- addicted rats."
Mayor John
Whitmire said at a news conference that
drugs
being stored in evi- dence lockers are attracting rats that feast on the illicit nar- cotics and cause damage to other evi- dence in the process.
"We got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying," Whitmire
said.
The mayor announced the start of an initiative in part- nership with the Harris County District Attorney's Office to organize the 1.2 mil- lion pieces of evi- dence stored by the city and discard any drugs stored since before 2015.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine