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SATI e-News:
December 11, 2002
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Forensic
DNA News From Around the Country |
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The following news summaries in this
section are reprinted with permission from the November 22, 2002
issue of DNA Legislation & News, published by Smith
Alling Lane, a government affairs firm that provides nationwide
governmental affairs services to Applied Biosystems:
http://www.dnaresource.com
Los Angeles Police Commission Delays DA's
Recommendation on Crime Lab
The LA Police Commission has delayed action on a suggestion by
the District Attorney to increase the amount of space allotted
for DNA analysis in the planned Regional Crime Lab Facility.
Under the current design, the DA contends the LAPD's half of the
lab will be too small to accommodate the technicians needed to
test all the DNA evidence from rapes and sexual assaults
projected in Los Angeles. Already, the department does not test
all DNA evidence that comes in from such cases, which requires
that it be sent out to private labs.
Original source, City News Service,
November, 19, 2002.
Houston, we have a problem
Work by the Houston Police Departments' crime lab will be
reviewed after a report by a local TV station that questioned
its findings in some cases. The plan includes asking the Harris
County District Attorney's Office to conduct an independent
analysis of the DNA samples in question, to perform an
independent review of the evidence handled internally by police,
and to continue to pursuing accreditation of the crime lab.
Houston is the largest city in the nation whose crime lab is not
accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory
Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.
Original source: The Associated
Press State & Local Wire, November 16, 2002.
San Diego receives $3 million to
help fight crime
In California, San Diego County will receive nearly $3 million
in state grants for crime-fighting programs. The county Board of
Supervisors yesterday formally accepted the state money and
allocated it to the Sheriff's Department and the District
Attorney's Office. The DA's office will receive about $997,000
to continue various programs, including one that uses DNA
testing to re-examine old cases.
Original source: The San Diego Union
Tribune, November 13, 2002.
Lack of communication between Oregon
crime lab and detectives explains trail of unsolved cases
In Oregon, State Police crime lab DNA evidence that could have
been used to solve dozens of burglary cases failed to reach
Portland Police Bureau detectives for the past two years,
officials say. The state lab had matched DNA evidence retrieved
from burglaries to genetic profiles of 26 convicted felons and
forwarded that information to Portland police, but the reports
rarely made it to detectives. The problem was discovered in
August after police arrested a suspected burglar and the state
lab informed officers that DNA analysis had tied the same man to
two other burglaries that occurred at least a year earlier.
State forensic analysts told officers they had identified other
city burglers and were puzzled why police had not been pursuing
their leads. Since 2000, the state lab has obtained and analyzed
DNA evidence from 86 burglary cases in Portland and 33 of the
cases resulted in hits on the DNA database for 26 individual
suspects (some individuals were suspects in multiple cases) .
Original source: The AP
State & Local Wire, November 14, 2002. |
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