Photo problems developing for HPD?

When you're investigating fatal car crashes and other crime scenes, we imagine the last thing you want is a camera that doesn't work — but that seems to be exactly what HPD is dealing with, according to a couple of news reports.

The case in question is the death of Leon and Maureen Roberson, the elderly couple killed Oct. 18 when a speeding wrecker broadsided their car as they left Bible study at their northeast Houston church. Police said the wrecker driver, Sergio Gonzales, was going at least twice the posted 45 mph speed limit when he hit the Robersons and that there were no skid marks on the pavement — but there are apparently no official police photos of the scene because a department-issued digital camera malfunctioned.

"You've got officers out on the roadway, risking their lives and sometimes they don't have the proper equipment. It'd be nice if they had video cameras, if they had cameras, if they had the paint that's necessary to mark the scene. Some officers don't have that," [assistant Harris County DA Paul] Doyle said.

According to KHOU, photos aren't available for five recent fatal traffic accidents because the digital cameras issued to officers — which Channel 11 reports cost less than $50 each — didn't work. HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready told Channel 2 that the department knows about the problem and has bought "almost nine laptops," new digital cameras and video cameras to help resolve it. Next, the department will train one sergeant and five officers to use the equipment to become crime-scene experts. With cameras a little better than the ones you'd buy at Walgreens, we hope.

The lack of photos doesn't mean the cases will fall apart, Doyle said, but it does make things a little harder: "It doesn't mean that we're not going to be able to prove our case. What it does is it gives a defense attorney an angle to attack, we're talking beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.