DENVER — Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas told city council members on Wednesday that city budget issues have forced the department to leave key civilian positions unfilled across its crime lab, records and identification bureau and fleet maintenance division.
Thomas briefed the council’s Health and Safety Committee on staffing levels in what he described as three distinct units: the crime lab, which collects and processes evidence; the Records and ID Bureau, which handles identification, warrant checks and records storage; and fleet maintenance, which services police vehicles.
In the crime lab, the shortest staffed positions are crime scene investigators, the unit responsible for collecting evidence at crime scenes. Thomas said that shortage sometimes means officers collect evidence themselves instead of trained crime scene technicians…