More support for finishing the Bromwich investigation

I rather suspected yesterday upon reading the story of funding for the Bromwich investigation into the HPD Crime Lab that there'd be more support for the probe forthcoming. Sure enough, here it is.

At Tuesday's council meeting, six of the 14 members expressed support for allowing the team of lawyers and scientists, led by former U.S. Justice Department official Michael Bromwich, to finish its work. More than a dozen members of the local criminal defense bar attended the meeting in support of the additional funding.

"If we had to pay all the people who have been harmed by the lab, it would cost a lot more than what we are paying," said Councilwoman Ada Edwards. "We need to stand firm, and we need to come to the end of the road."

[Mayor Bill] White said he will review the city's contract with Bromwich's team before taking a position.

"This money does come out of policing, and it is precious," the mayor said. "I want to review tapes of my conversations with Mr. Bromwich and our contract, but we will be bringing something up very soon."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that Mayor White will support this as well. While what he is saying here strikes me as fairly standard "I want to check and make sure there's nothing lurking here that'll bite me on the butt some day before I jump on the bandwagon" cover language, it'd still be nice to get something a bit more direct than that. As long as he does support it, I'll be satisfied.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 20, 2006 to Crime and Punishment | TrackBack