WESTMINSTER : Improvements OKd for Police Photo Lab

The City Council has approved spending $25,000 to improve the Police Department’s photo crime laboratory, which city officials closed down in January after finding that it violated state and federal safety standards.

The council Tuesday unanimously approved the expenditure, which is intended to bring the lab up to federally mandated safety standards. All lab work involving chemicals will remain suspended until the violations--which include lack of an emergency shower, protective gloves and goggles, chemical hazard warning labels, smoke alarms and specialized chemical storage--have been corrected, according to a report to the council.

Police Lt. Andrew Hall said Wednesday that there have been no illnesses or injuries reported as a result of the violations. “As far as we know, no one’s been exposed to anything they shouldn’t have been,” he said.

The lab should be up and running again within two weeks. The Police Department has spent more than $2,000 for commercial photo processing since the crime lab was closed.

The money for the improvements will come from savings generated by the department’s expanded cite-and-release program, under which the city avoids paying the county to book suspects into county-operated jails. The program is expected to save the city more than $150,000 for the 1991-92 fiscal year, City Manager Jerry Kenny said.