FORENSIC LAB MUST BECOME JOINT PROJECT.

Byline: STEVE COOLEY

THOUSANDS of rapes and sexual assaults against women remain unsolved in Los Angeles because the city and county crime labs aren't equipped to handle the amazing advances in DNA testing.

That means the victims of these heinous crimes must suffer in silence and live in fear until police get a break in the case. Only after a suspect is identified and the case is brought to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for prosecution is a DNA test completed.

Science isn't the issue. Each week in Great Britain, forensic investigators are solving 300 ``cold cases,'' everything from auto theft to assaults in cases previously without suspects.

With vision and proper planning, Britain built sophisticated crime labs and created a national DNA database and began doing ``cold hits,'' checking every DNA sample taken at crime scenes against their databases of felons and parolees to find matches.

If we had a similar system in Los Angeles County, we could achieve the same impressive results.

Instead, more than 700 homicides and 1,200 sexual assault cases remain unsolved because of a backlog in DNA testing at the Sheriff's Department's crime lab alone, frustrating independent police departments throughout the county and needlessly jeopardizing public safety.

Thanks to Sheriff Lee Baca's initiative in securing funding and Gov. Gray Davis' response to public safety, Los Angeles County now has a historic opportunity to build a state-of-the-art crime lab at California State University, Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, crime fighting will not make a quantum leap forward unless the proposed $96 million Regional Forensic Crime Lab is transformed into a truly visionary and collaborative project.

Sheriff Baca and LAPD Chief Bernard Parks should strive to open the process to the community for public discussion.

Key crime lab customers, such as the District Attorney's Office, municipal prosecutors and the 46 police agencies serving nearly one-third of the county's residents, must be meaningfully included in determining the final scope of any new county crime lab.

Mistrust of the criminal justice system is at an all-time high. To help restore the public's faith in the justice system, all agencies that gather, evaluate and present evidence must establish uniform protocols and procedures.

A single set of benchmarks in the gathering, analysis and presentation of forensic and scientific evidence is critical.

For 30 years, the two public crime labs have been treated like neglected stepchildren. There has not been the commitment to hire and train enough criminologists, replace aging equipment or add space to protect evidence.

A 1997 grand jury report on the crime labs operated by the Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department noted that each lab received a fraction of the budget they requested each year.

Citing just one example of inadequate funding, the report said the Los Angeles City Council approved spending $108,000 to buy one piece of replacement equipment for the LAPD's lab in the 1996-97 budget, even though the lab requested 300 pieces of new and replacement equipment estimated to cost $3.8 million.

Presently, the LAPD lab has two DNA experts to do testing while the sheriff's lab has eight, leaving both labs overwhelmed with cases and understaffed to search state and national DNA databases similar to the British system.

To do adequate ``cold case'' testing, each lab needs 40 DNA experts. With a new regional crime lab built to accommodate future growth, that worthy goal could someday be a reality.

Most importantly, the process to develop a new crime lab needs public scrutiny as well as public input. Historic shortcomings and failures of each lab should be acknowledged and evaluated openly and honestly.

We should be discussing the four or five critical functions to be included at the Cal State L.A site.

Function and operation should dictate design. To determine this, input is vital from the public, women's advocacy groups and others in the criminal justice system dependent on a crime lab's product.

A state-of-the-art DNA center is also the first line of defense in clearing people wrongly accused and ensuring there is justice for all.

A crime lab with focused objectives and appropriate priorities will propel every law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County into the 21st century in forensic science.

This county's 9 million residents could feel more secure in their homes and communities, knowing their law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies have the tools and technology to solve ``cold crimes'' through DNA testing and national and international DNA databanks.

In short, with enough DNA experts working in a state-of-the art crime lab, we can discover the identity of predators, rapists and murderers and put them behind bars.

The stakes in Los Angeles County are enormous. Let's get it right this time.