A blogger by the name of Steve Weinberg authored a post discussing some shortcomings in today’s crime labs, using Houston PD as an example. While he made some good points, one of them is a bit misleading:
In the wrongful conviction realm, incompetence and dishonesty at police agency crime laboratories rank among the most difficult problems to repair.
Why?
Because it is expensive to purchase state-of-the-art equipment like what the citizenry is accustomed to seeing on fictional television dramas such as “CSI.”
Another reason why labs don’t buy the state-of-the-art equipment seen in television shows like CSI is because the equipment itself is fictional — or at least depicted in fictional ways. Such as any computer screen that pops up with a red flashing “MATCH” message, 30 seconds after the evidence is collected.
The rest of the post raises some points worth considering.
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