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Lab personnel rarely collect crime scene evidence directly

Another few tidbits from yesterday's meeting of the Criminal Justice Integrity Unit created by the Court of Criminal Appeals; this time let's highlight some comments from the event about Texas forensic labs:Pat Johnson, who's the field supervisor for DPS' state-run crime labs and a member of the Integrity Unit panel, performed an informal survey of non-DPS crime labs in Texas operated by local jurisdictions. Respondents said that less than 10% of evidence collected at crime scenes was gathered by lab personnel, with most of it being collected by cops. Austin PD is the main exception, he said, with an entirely civilian Crime Scene Investigation unit.A majority of labs, when asked how good a job they were doing, replied that some improvements were needed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).