Information Items:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information Items:
The City of Charlotte, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Workforce Development Board and Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont will hold a press conference Thursday, May 8 at 10:00 a.m. to introduce the Goodwill Youth Job Connection. The event will be held at Goodwill Industries located at 2122 Freedom Drive. Council members are invited to attend.
On April 14, Council approved $45,000 to fund a pilot job center for youth as a complement to the Mayor's Youth Employment Program and increase access to employment for youth in Charlotte. The Youth Job Connection will be operated by Goodwill Industries and focus on job placement and training for youth.
In January 2008, the City's new sign ordinance regulations became effective. The amended ordinance increased citation amounts from $25.00 per illegal sign to escalating penalties of up to $1,000 per illegal sign. Since January, Code Enforcement staff has issued over $300,000 in sign ordinance penalties and have received $18,000 in payments from Appeal cases.
As the campaign season approaches, Code Enforcement is anticipating a spike in political signs posted illegally within the street right-of-way. Code Enforcement has provided candidates the sign regulation information in their registration packets. Candidates were also mailed a reminder letter regarding illegal signage. Information on sign posting is also available on the web sites of Neighborhood Development and Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
The following information on the CMPD Crime Lab is in response to questions raised during Council's discussion of the 2008 NC Legislative Agenda on April 14, 2008
- CMPD has operated its own Crime Lab since 1968 for two primary reasons. One is to avoid the backlog in evidence analysis at the SBI Lab; the other is to be able to set our own priorities in evidence analysis as opposed to adhering to those set by the state. The volume of workload handled by the state can result in lengthy turnaround time (firearms: 14-15 months; latent fingerprints: 18 months; DNA: 3 months
- CMPD aligns its priorities in evidence analysis more closely with community safety needs which may shift over time. Setting its own priorities allows CMPD to conduct some types of analysis which are more difficult to obtain from the state. These include analysis of evidence in property crimes such as burglary, and analysis in cases where there is not an identified suspect. As CMPD identifies cases that have similar patterns, the Lab is able to group those cases together to determine if the crimes are being committed by the same suspect. The goal is always to get the most dangerous offenders off the street as rapidly as possible.
- CMPD's Lab is facing annual increases in workload as well as new technological capabilities, including DNA, which make more complex analysis possible. The following are an estimated number of cases received each year:
- 300 DNA cases per year
- 1,250 firearms cases per year
- 6,000 fingerprint cases per year
- The FY2008 budget for the Crime Lab is $1,636,502. Additional resources have been requested for FY2009 and will be reflected in the budget.
- CMPD has contracts with five agencies in the region (Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Pineville, and Stallings) for evidence analysis. CMPD charges those agencies $173.00 per analytical hour. This includes the actual analysis of the evidence and the associated administrative work. The fee is based on a fully loaded cost for lab operations including salaries, operating costs, equipment depreciation, etc. We do not charge for the analyst's time if he or she must testify in court.
