The UK’s Forensic Science Service Closing Down

While the United States debates the virtues of pri­va­tiz­ing foren­sic labs, the UK is clos­ing their pre­mier lab, opt­ing for the pri­vate option.

The British gov­ern­ment has decided to close the Forensic Science Service—seriously. I’m not jok­ing. On December 14, 2010, the British gov­ern­ment announced that by March 2012, the FSS would be closed down. But by the time this arti­cle goes to print you will prob­a­bly have already heard all of this. It is a mon­u­men­tal event in the foren­sic sci­ence com­mu­nity. If it is part of your rou­tine to read this mag­a­zine, you are “in tune” enough with that com­mu­nity to already be aware that one of the most impor­tant foren­sic sci­ence insti­tu­tions in the world is being shut down or at least sold off.And while those work­ing for, or closely with, the Service are not com­pletely surprised—when I asked one friend of mine who recently left the FSS if he was sur­prised he responded, “Why do you think I left!?”—my guess is that around the world peo­ple who have relied on the FSS for research, tech­ni­cal assis­tance, and vision are fairly shocked.

Read the rest of the arti­cle on Forensic Magazine.