Tag Archives: Forensic science lab

Critter Forensics

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Mystery photo

Mystery photo. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

The above is a photo of snake wine. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) explains that, in many parts of Asia, medicinal benefits are thought to be achieved by storing snakes – even rare and endangered snakes – in rice wine. This is one of many mystery photos that you can find on the USFWS Forensics Laboratory website.

According to the USFWS, its forensics laboratory is the only lab dedicated to crimes against wildlife. Operating like a typical police crime lab, the agency’s technicians examine, identify, and compare physical evidence to link suspects, victims, and crime scenes.

The start of the lab can be found in 1979, when the USFWS hired Ken Goddard, a police crime laboratory director from southern California to establish a forensics lab that would support wildlife law enforcement. After six months of drafting evidence handling protocols and chapters for a lab manual, Goddard learned that he would also have to find a way to fund the lab. You can read the story about the history of the forensics lab on the USFWS website.

The website also offers video tours of various departments of the forensic lab, details about the role of their investigators, an overview of the types of evidence that they analyze, and many free publications. It’s a great resource for anyone who plans to include this aspect of forensic science in a story.

 

DC’s New Crime Lab

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Firearms analysis

Firearms analysts keep a reference library of bullets to match bullets recovered from crime scenes. Source: Katye Martens/Stateline. (Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.)

On November 27, the Pew Center on the States website posted Maggie Clark’s article, “D.C. Crime Lab: An Experiment in Forensic Science.” The new crime lab reflects many of the recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences’ 2009 report on the state of forensic science. For example, the lab is staffed only with civilian scientists.

Many jurisdictions have crime labs tied to the local prosecutor’s office or police department. D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson told Clark that close connections between crime labs and police can expose labs to harsh criticism. “If the crime lab is within the police department,” Mendelson said, “defense attorneys could say to an analyst, ‘well, you work for law enforcement, you’re just proving the police officer’s case.’ It’s better for the justice system when forensic analysis is done by a separate agency.” The D.C. lab is an independent lab; its director answers to the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety.

Dr. Max Houck, director of the D.C. Department of Forensic Science, said that D.C.’s civilian-led crime lab can lead the way to similar changes in other U.S. crime labs.

“We need a national strategy on forensic science,” Houck said. “Here, we are running the agency as a science-based organization and as a peer with other agencies like the medical examiner or law enforcement with the focus really being on the science.”

A science-based crime lab operating independently of a police department is not a new idea. In 1914, Sir Lomer Gouin, premier of Quebec, announced the establishment of the Laboratoire de Recherches Medico-Legales. It was the first forensic lab in North America.