In wake of warehouse fire, NYPD says it needs $600 million to build new evidence storage facility
NEW YORK -- What started as a City Council hearing about a Brooklyn fire that destroyed barrels of DNA evidence turned into a call for action from public defenders on Tuesday.
They say the NYPD needs to do a better job protecting evidence.
The department has a plan, but it's a costly one.
Seven months after an electrical fire burned through one of the NYPD's evidence warehouses, public defenders delivered a burning critique inside the City Council chambers.
"We have been mystified by the evidence preservation system here in New York," said Rebecca Brown of the Innocence Project.
"The program the NYPD has in place is pure chaos," said Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez of Brooklyn Defender Service.
"This has extremely grave consequences for our clients," added Elizabeth Felber of the Legal Aid Society.
The attorneys who work to overturn wrongful convictions have been asking the NYPD for a list of evidence destroyed in the fire so they know which cases could be affected.
Police told CBS2 earlier this year that the fire destroyed "virtually all the evidence" stored there, with the exception of eight barrels.
The NYPD testified Tuesday that much of evidence lost in the fire had already been DNA tested, and much of it was already damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
"It is deeply concerning that the NYPD was not in a better position to track and compile a comprehensive inventory of evidence stored before the fire occurred at the end of last year," Councilmember Kamillah Hanks said.
The NYPD says it has been telling district attorneys what evidence was stored and damaged there. The department also revealed that because the evidence dates to before 2012, the evidence records are not digitized, so officials are sifting through paper records.
The NYPD testified it wants a new, state-of-the-art evidence storage facility, but it needs more than $600 million to build it.
"It is a hefty price tag, but it would serve the department and the city for decades to come," said Kristine M. Ryan, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of management and budget.
Police also say they're looking into the cost of digitizing their older records, and public defenders say the fire is an example of why that should be done as soon as possible.