Houston and Harris County officials announce joint plan to clear decades of evidence from police property room

Mayor (name not specified) and Harris County District Attorney Sean Teer announced a joint effort on evidence-handling reforms on behalf of the city of Houston and Harris County, saying the collaboration will clear decades of stored property and return officers assigned to evidence custody back to patrol duties. "But today, we're going another step forward in improving criminal justice in Houston and across Harris County," the mayor said, adding that the initiative represents "a new day of properly handling evidence."

The initiative centers on identifying and destroying narcotics and other items that officials say no longer bear value to prosecutions. District Attorney Sean Teer said his office will change how it handles narcotics evidence and is taking immediate steps to address the volume of stored property. "As of right now, we are starting to move that up, and we will be destroying any narcotics evidence that has been obtained prior to 2015," Teer said. He also said the office will not permit police departments to destroy narcotics evidence that has been in police possession since 2005 without coordination with the DA's office.

Teer outlined several operational steps his office has taken…