Who Polices Police Labs?
There is currently no governmental body, no state or federal agency that oversees the forensic labs that run tests on DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, even on the blood of drunken driving suspects.
Policing the Crime Labs, posted to the North County Times web site on Saturday, author Teri Figueroa asked the question: "Who polices the labs the police use?"
There is currently no governmental body, no state or federal agency that oversees the forensic labs that run tests on DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, even on the blood of drunken driving suspects.
Last year, the National Academy of Sciences issued a congressionally funded report on the state of forensic labs. Among the findings: "... oversight and enforcement of operating standards, certification, accreditation, and ethics are lacking in most local and state jurisdictions."
Another problem noted in the National Academy of Sciences report is that crime labs are often part of the law enforcement agencies, as opposed to independent agencies. The implication is that the possibility exists for bias, no matter how unintentional, toward the prosecution.
"It is very hard to challenge ... if there was a problem with the lab. If they screw up, you are out of luck," said Justin Brooks, the director of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego.
Obviously, there's a problem. What's the solution? If you work in a crime lab, please share your thoughts.
It is an expensive process to gain accreditation. However, the costs of losing in the court room from inadmissible forensic science evidence are higher in the long run. If cities, states and the federal government spend millions to obtain evidence only to be discarded in court, then accreditation to refute objections may be a reasonable return on investment.
In the US, there are 377 ASCLD/LAB accredited crime laboratories, according to The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board. There are thousands of locations where evidence is stored from local police lock-ups to federal repositories. However, the cost to protect evidence is rising. Last year saw the requirements for laboratory accreditation increase to include the internationally recognized ISO 17025. This standard encompasses all aspects of facility design and laboratory management from calibration to testing to record keeping.
Veriteq helps crime labs to maintain the chain of evidence for controlled environments. Monitoring systems provide fail-safe records and alarm notification for environments that contain temperature and humidity sensitive items. By accessing information from anywhere on a lab’s network, users can present secure reports with no gaps in the data, proving that stored items were not compromised.
Ken Appel
Vice President of Regulated Markets
Veriteq Instruments
www.veriteq.com
Tom
http://www.firstanalyticallabs.com