After Crime Lab technician Deborah Madden was caught stealing all that cocaine from the evidence locker last year, SFPD shut down the lab and Chief Gascón ordered a review of the department's conduct issues. According to CBS5 today, the results of that review show 61 officers with conduct issues that could be used to weaken a case should they ever testify in a criminal trial.
Gascón downplayed the numbers though, pointing out that none of the issues - some of which are more than a decade old or involved officers who have since moved to administrative posts - necessitate moving any personnel away from positions that require public interaction. The police chief was also quick to cite the eight percent drop in violent crime in 2010, crediting once again the use of crime statistics and computer data for allowing his department to more efficiently deploy street cops to problem areas. The drop in violent crime came despite the fact that the department is down some 200 officers since 2008. The current roster of cops totals 2,260.
