Bexar County's criminal justice system is backed up across the board, according to observations by the county's sole conservative commissioner.
Precinct 3 County Commissioner Grant Moody questioned District Attorney Joe Gonzales concerning a backlog of high-risk criminal cases during the commissioners' meeting this week.
They engaged in a back-and-forth over the numbers. But in the end, Moody told Gonzales that thousands of cases remained unresolved.
"There's constantly new cases going in. Constantly cases going out. But if we saw the high-risk backlog as a problem before, it still exists," Moody said. "It's actually increased a little bit from where it was 12 months ago."
Gonzales acknowledged there are challenges facing his office when it comes to addressing the backlog, including staffing shortages, a new case computer system, and the time it takes for prosecutors to review the ever-growing amounts of body cam footage now used as evidence.
But he also promised steps to continue to address the backlog. "I just want to make sure the public knows that we're doing everything thing we can to tackle those issues that we're confronted with," Gonzales told commissioners.
Commissioners voted to continue funding for the DA's office to work overtime on the backlog. Moody also thanked the 45 assistant DAs who have worked 3,600 hours on nights and weekends to clear the backlog, in addition to their daily caseloads.
County Judge Peter Sakai offered an analogy for the public to understand the backlog.
"I don't see this any different than what's happening out on 1604 and I-10," he said. "You know, when you get caught up in that, you get angry, and you start complaining, and you want to hold people accountable. The issue is it's complex."
Sakai said it's not just the computer system named Odyssey, it's just not IT, it's not just the DA, it's not SAPD or the Bexar County sheriff.
"It's digital evidence. It's evidence transfer. It's backlog with other stakeholders, such as the crime lab." Sakai said.
"So, if you think about it, it's no different than when you get stuck on I-10 and 1604." he added again. "You know what? Once that thing is done, and it is going to get done, boy, that's going to be a really great place to be zipping through."
"But for now, we just got to deal with the fact that everybody is working as hard as they can and I want give credit for all those that do that," Sakai said.
Moody said the county crime lab has a backup of drug cases too. He added that the county jail remains near capacity with some inmates from Bexar County now housed in Burnet and Kerr counties.
He said it may be time for outside help for the crime lab and time to talk about more local jail space.
