Unanalyzed Evidence in Law Enforcement Custody
The American Justice Department has a series online concerning a survey related to unanalyzed evidence, DNA backlogs, etc. Some of the highlights:
The survey showed that agencies had not submitted forensic evidence (including DNA, fingerprints, firearms and toolmarks) to a crime lab in:
- Fourteen percent of open, unsolved homicides.
- Eighteen percent of open, unsolved rapes.
- Twenty-three percent of open, unsolved property crimes.
There are reasons why a law enforcement agency may not submit forensic evidence to a lab. The evidence may be considered not probative, charges may have been dropped or, a guilty plea entered. However, the researchers who conducted the NIJ-funded survey also concluded that some law enforcement agencies may not fully understand the value of evidence in developing new investigative leads.
The survey did not determine:
- How many of the open cases would be solved or yield investigative leads if evidence in them were to be sent to the lab.
- The number of cases in which evidence was analyzed in the past, but which now, with more advanced technology, might be solved or yield investigative leads.
The survey revealed that more than half of law enforcement agencies (56 percent) did not have a computerized information system that was capable of tracking forensic evidence inventory. Large agencies (100 or more sworn officers) were much more likely to have a computerized system, with nearly three out of four reporting that their information system allowed tracking of forensic evidence.
For the agencies that do have a computerized information system, the survey did not reveal the exact capabilities, such as whether they were able to specify what evidence has been tested (or not tested) in a case, how long evidence in a case has been in storage, and the status of cases. The survey also did not determine, for the 44 percent of agencies that do have a computerized system, whether these systems are integrated with more centralized police records management systems.
Read more here.
Categories: Forensics
Tags: Crime Labs, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, US Justice Department