If AZ Prop 100 doesn’t pass, it will mean longer turn around at the state crime lab. Forensic science analysis costs money. If the state crime lab isn’t funded, agencies will have to find other cheaper (ie: private labs) alternatives:
If voters fail to approve Proposition 100, the Arizona Department of Public Safety could lose
[Continue Reading Arizona DPS Crime Lab Budget Crisis…]
Testing cases going back 20 years is going to be expensive and time consuming. These errors could have been caught if the lab had a policy in place for better discovery. The United States has an adversarial legal system, a series of checks and balances. As long as crime labs are controlled by prosecutorial
[Continue Reading FBI Called in to Investigate North Carolina Crime Lab…]
An article in the Arizona Republic indicates the prior accusations relating to the quality of work performed at the Phoenix PD Crime Lab is more politically motivated, based on a union trying to keep a group of employees from leaving.
Stay tuned.
A Phoenix labor-relations board is scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday from police crime-lab employees after the
[Continue Reading Phoenix Crime Lab Labor Relations Tension Escalates…]
You have to feel for the Fresno County Sheriff, but there seems to be a lot of “black or white” thinking here as people posture for the political battle over the budget. Certainly closing two floors of the prison, and releasing 500 felons early, drastically laying off deputies, or closing the crime lab would help
[Continue Reading Close Crime Lab to Balance Budget?…]
Criminal defense attorneys are going to love this. Anytime you have a situation where evidence is mishandled, it questions the reliability of forensic test results. Apparently the Phoenix Police Department is investigating claims that crime lab staff left evidence behind at crime scenes, and threw away fingerprint evidence.
PHOENIX — CBS 5 News obtained sworn affidavits by
[Continue Reading Phoenix Police Investigate Phoenix Crime Lab…]