March 5, 2010 Phoenix Labor-Relations Board to Hear Crime-Lab Claims A Phoenix labor-relations board heard testimony from police crime-lab employees after the union representing crime-scene specialists raised questions about mismanaged evidence and supervisor misconduct. Questions arose when an analyst was re-assigned based on performance concerns.
March 5, 2010 Bill Proposes Standardized Coroner Training South Dakota has coroners in every county, but when it comes to investigating crime scenes, coroners don't all have the same training. A bill to create standardized training for coroners is making its way through Pierre with strong support.
March 5, 2010 Texas Supplied Newborn Blood Samples to Forensic Database Investigation by a non-profit online media organization in Texas has revealed that between 2003 and 2007, the state quietly gave hundreds of newborn blood samples to a U.S. Armed Forces laboratory for use in a forensics database.
March 5, 2010 Bodies Stack Up At Oklahoma Examiner’s Office Amid turmoil surrounding the position of the chief medical examiner, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma City quietly slips into disrepair. A lack of space and outdated equipment in the 30-year-old building are causing problems, with the number of bodies exceeding its storage space.
March 5, 2010 AAFS Tackles Forensic Science’s Tainted Image The overriding issue at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) meeting in Seattle last week was the need to shore up forensic techniques. Last year’s NAS report concluded that bite mark, blood spatter, handwriting, and fingerprint analysis is not backed by the rigorous evidence of other disciplines.
March 5, 2010 FOP Rallies Against Crime Lab Closing The local Fraternal Order of Police held a rally in Columbus, Georgia, opposing the scheduled closing of the GBI crime lab. Due to state budget shortfalls, the lab is scheduled to close in March.
March 1, 2010 Twin Murder Case Highlights Importance of Fingerprints In a justice system that often relies heavily on high-tech DNA testing, it was fingerprinting that succeeded where DNA failed in the case of a murder in which a man was nearly convicted for a crime his identical twin committed.
March 1, 2010 Detroit Crime Lab Closure Backlogged Michigan’s Justice System The closure of the Detroit Police crime lab two years ago is adding to heavy backlogs of forensic evidence at labs across the state, causing the justice system in Michigan to "grind to a halt," prosecutors and other law enforcement officials told a House panel Thursday.
March 1, 2010 New Alaskan Crime Lab Could Combat Cold Cases Officials say until the new state crime lab gets built more and more cases go cold every day. The Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory processes 6 times more DNA evidence from violent crimes than any other publicly funded crime lab in the nation.
March 1, 2010 “John Doe” Indictment Leads to Arrest The DNA profile charged in a 2004 “John Doe” indictment lead to the arrest for two rapes in Queens. The DNA profile was linked to Mauricio Rosales, 32, after he pled guilty in November to stealing more than $3,000 from a former employer.
March 1, 2010 Firebombed Scottish Forensic Lab Leads to Delays A firebomb attack in Edinburgh at one of Scotland’s four forensic science laboratories is suspected to be an attempt to destroy evidence. Although no evidence has been lost, legal experts said that delays in reopening the facility could hold up trials.
February 19, 2010 UCLA Professors Study Fingerprint Error Rates UCLA School of Law professor Jennifer Mnookin is working on a project that will establish a scientific method to quantify the accuracy and error rates of latent fingerprint examination, one of the most widely used forensic disciplines.
February 19, 2010 Georgia Fights to Save Crime Lab South Georgia lawmakers say they're working to find money in the state budget to save the crime lab in Moultrie, but that's an uphill battle. Law enforcers say if the GBI closes the lab next month as planned, it will hamper their investigations.
February 19, 2010 Proposed Body Farm Spurs Controversy Mesa State College's plan to place a forensic body farm near a growing residential neighborhood has upset residents who fear they'll be close to odors and disease.
February 19, 2010 Videoconferencing Brings Students to the Crime Lab A Montana program is allowing high school students a view into forensic science using videoconferencing to bring them into the crime lab in a non-disruptive way.
February 19, 2010 Forensic Sculptor Puts Face to Murdered Child Forensic sculptor Frank Bender who has made a career of helping police solve crimes by shaping in clay the faces of unidentified murder victims, has just unveiled his final sculpture. Police hope this detailed sculpture of a young boy may identify him where a forensic sketch was previously unsuccessful.
February 12, 2010 Are Exonerations Undermining Forensic Science? A recent article released by the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice journal argues that the work of groups working to exonerate wrongfully accused inmates is a form of “DNA activism” that introduces a potentially catastrophic form of “contextual contamination” to post-conviction proceedings unjustly calling forensic science into question.
February 12, 2010 Survey Raises Questions on NYPD Crime Data More than a hundred retired New York Police Department captains and higher-ranking officers said in a survey that the intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics, according to two criminologists studying the department.
February 12, 2010 Use of Family DNA to ID Suspects Debated A growing number of law enforcement agencies nationwide are considering allowing the use of familial DNA to pursue suspects. Critics claim the practice amounts to guilt by association.
February 12, 2010 Mandatory Rape Kit Testing In Illinois? New legislation being drafted in Illinois may require that every rape kit be submitted for testing and require processing within six months. If the legislation passes, already backlogged crime labs could be flooded by an estimated 4,000 rape kits currently in storage.
February 12, 2010 Iris Database Comes to Western Kentucky The Daviess County Sheriff's Office has been awarded a grant from the National Sheriff's Association, becoming the first in Kentucky to become part of the Iris Biometric System, a national database of iris scans.
February 12, 2010 Forensic Anthropologists Study Decomposition A University of Maine associate anthropology professor is studying the decay of pig carcasses in various weather and soil conditions. The project aims at getting better data on the changes regional conditions cause in human body decay.
February 05, 2010 California Supreme Court OKs John Doe Warrants Based On Crime-Scene DNA The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 today that prosecutors may get around legal deadlines by filing arrest warrants based on DNA left behind at a crime.
February 05, 2010 Evidence on Hold DNA samples, fingerprints, and rape kits wait months as Connecticut state crime lab struggles with backlogs.
February 05, 2010 Policing the Crime Labs Though the work is reliable in the vast majority of cases, forensic laboratories and their results are not flawless critics say. Recent incidents raise the question: Who polices the labs the police use?
