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Houston fingerprint lab plagued with errors, two-year backlog

Stunning news this week out of Houston PD about errors and possible misconduct in their fingerprint analysis unit: First an audit showed errors and problems in more than half of 548 randomly selected cases, now the Houston Chronicle is reporting that the fingerprint unit is the focus of a criminal probe; two of the three analysts on the hot seat have been with the department since the '70s. Reports the Chron:Because the audit found workers often overlooked fingerprints or wrongly determined fingerprints weren't able to be analyzed, authorities are re-reviewing more than 4,000 violent crime cases involving fingerprints from the last six years. They're also trying to work through a 6,000-case backlog that dates back two years and includes violent and property crimes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 03, 2009 (boomark / email).