A recent Houston Chronicle editorial blasts the Houston Crime Laboratory. The article starts off by stating:
On television, on the police drama CSI (for Crime Scene Investigation), the brilliant, dedicated completely professional staff of the Las Vegas Police Department solves every crime that comes into its hands through flawless forensic science and with ironclad integrity each week. Unfortunately for us as taxpayers, the reality of local forensic work is much closer to the old British comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus than to the admittedly fictional CSI.
While it may be a bit heavy-handed, the conclusion was spot on, and in agreement with the February 2009 National Academy of Sciences report on forensic science:
Enough is enough. Although this is admittedly a difficult budget year, either the state of Texas in the upcoming legislative session or the regional counties and cities should come together and simply remove all handling of forensic evidence from law enforcement once and for all. Our leaders should create a regional crime lab, actually run by scientists, perhaps under a university, and not under any elected sheriff or appointed law enforcement officer, that can run actual, neutral and competent forensic testing untainted by pressure and uncorrupted by malfeasance or negligence. The people accused of crimes are owed that much. We as taxpayers are owed that much.
It is time for us to end this round robin of scandal and put science where it belongs — in the hands of independent scientists whose only goal is the truth.
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