• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

In The News

2014-07-02 | Pennsylvania police fail to fingerprint thousands of suspected criminals
In 2013, 30,000 suspected criminals whose charges included sex crimes, assaults and murder were not fingerprinted by Pennsylvania police, according to state records. State law requires that suspected offenders be fingerprinted within 48 hours of arrest. So, if thousands of people aren't getting fingerprinted, whose fault is it? “It’s up to the police to do it. It’s a mandatory function. It’s not anybody else’s job but the arresting department,” said Eric Radnovich, director of the Bureau of Justice Services at the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office. But police often pass the buck, relying on judges, jailers or even defendants themselves to be sure prints are made. In many cases, prints are made more than a year later, if they’re made at all. The social cost of not fingerprinting those who are arrested is not small: Without a fingerprint, a defendant has no criminal history.

2014-06-26 | Houston Crime Lab Tech Admitted to Bad Lab Procedures
A former Houston crime laboratory technician blamed for leaving behind dozens of questionable test results admitted to colleagues that he knew he wasn't following proper procedures after results from one of his tests were found faulty, according to a Houston Police Department internal investigation report.

2014-06-26 | Houston Crime Lab Tech Admitted to Bad Lab Procedures
A former Houston crime laboratory technician blamed for leaving behind dozens of questionable test results admitted to colleagues that he knew he wasn't following proper procedures after results from one of his tests were found faulty, according to a Houston Police Department internal investigation report.

2014-06-24 | New Delaware crime lab faces resistance
WILMINGTON – As the Delaware House gets ready for a fast-track vote Tuesday on a bill to abolish the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and create a new crime lab, two national groups are expressing strong reservations about the change. The National Association of Medical Examiners has expressed the strongest objections, sending a five-page letter to legislators and state leaders calling for the measure to be withdrawn and reconsidered. A spokesperson for the Innocence Project, meanwhile, said that the legislation has some serious flaws that need to be addressed, including two sections that could bring constitutional challenges.

2014-06-19 | Cases Affected after Crime Lab Analyst Ousted
Scores of pending criminal cases and past convictions could be in jeopardy in the wake of revelations that a former Houston Police crime lab technician resigned after an internal investigation found evidence of lying, improper procedure and tampering with an official record.

2014-06-16 | Rape kit testing bill facing opposition from law enforcement organization
The California State Sheriff's Association is coming out strongly against the rape kit bill. Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson is the group's president, and he says, "The problematic part of this piece of legislation is really the unfunded mandate and the over-burdensome regulation that it brings. Really this is about local control. It's about the sheriffs having the discretion in determining which forensic cases we refer to the Department of Justice."

2014-06-11 | Four Reasons You Should Not Dry Evidence in a Fume Hood
When drying evidence in a fume hood, it is often very difficult to maintain chain of custody, prevent cross contamination, and properly decontaminate the work area of biohazards. If you are currently drying evidence in a fume hood, it might be time to consider obtaining an Evidence Drying Cabinet instead.

2014-05-31 | Backlogs plague Valley police crime labs
Fingerprint identification is only one brick in the wall of evidence that police attempt to build, and it is more contested than forensic evidence such as DNA, Chandler police Sgt. Joe Favazzo said. But often the same person commits multiple low-level burglaries, so getting that fingerprint information into the system can lead to multiple cases being solved, he said.

2014-05-30 | Backlogs plague Valley police crime labs
Then it can take two years to get a new hire up to speed. "You really can't get a degree in latent-print analysis that prepares you to walk into the lab and do work," Figarelli said. "We make them minimally productive, but it does take a full year and a half to two years to turn them loose on their own" at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said about new hires.

2014-05-30 | Jury awards $175,000 to fired St. Louis police chemist in whistleblower case
A jury decided Wednesday to award $175,000 to a former St. Louis police chemist who claimed she was fired from her 25-year job because she blew the whistle on drug testing errors in the crime lab. The verdict was announced after about five hours of deliberations in a trial that ran longer than a week in St. Louis Circuit Court. The plaintiff, Margart Owens, told a reporter she held no animosity toward the department, but felt it was important to clear her name and prevent future errors. “I’m a scientist,” she said. “If the reports are in error, they should be corrected, because people’s lives are affected by it.”