Crime & Clues

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is calling for a statewide conversation among lawmakers, law enforcement, and victim advocates about the testing of rape evidence kits.

Those who support the submission of all kits for examination reason that by collecting more DNA profiles, authorities will find links to serial rapists and solve more cases. Proponents cite studies that show sexual assault to be a pattern offense.

read more

By avoiding these four common mistakes, you’ll be well on your way towards becoming an excellent manager.

Mistake #1: Becoming Buddies with Employees
It’s a hard thing to do, but new managers—especially if they’ve been promoted up from within their work units—must form new types of relationships with their co-workers. Because of new positions, former peers are now subordinates. It just doesn’t work for them to be buddies with their employees.

read more

Whether building a new lab or renovating the old one, don't forget about the safety of the bystanders. Develop a Public Hazard Control Plan.

read more

As crime scene officers we have the responsibility of protecting the crime scene and its integrity, here are some products you can use to help protect your crime scene.

read more

California lawmakers concerned that police are failing to analyze crucial DNA evidence in rape and sexual assault crimes approved legislation last week requiring law enforcement agencies to keep detailed records of all genetic material gathered in such cases.

Under the terms of the proposed bill, law enforcement agencies would be required to submit an annual report to the state Department of Justice detailing, among other things, the number of evidence kits collected that year and how many of those were submitted to laboratories for analysis.

read more

Santa Clara County medical examiner Dr. Michelle Jorden, a board certified neuropathologist, has become the in-house expert on shaken-baby cases and any death that needs special analysis of the brain.

With a reputation for thoroughness and professionalism, Jorden has yet to have her testimony proved false in court. Considering that her work is likely to put someone behind bars, sometimes for life, she takes her work seriously.

read more

On the third day of a retrial of an October 2008 Virginia murder conviction, forensics supervisors testified that the forensic firearms analysis in the case was incomplete, did not follow procedure, missed the presence of telltale gunpowder particles, and used inappropriate fabric to judge the firing distance.

read more

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive U.S. report on the Forensic Technologies and Services market. The U.S. market for Forensic Technologies and Services is projected to register $20.52 billion in annual revenue by 2015. Surging crime rates, particularly cases related to cyber crime, rising number of terrorist attacks, and stronger role of forensic sciences in bringing suspects to the book, are creating the need for increased adoption of forensic technologies and services.

read more

A state-ordered report found that agents in North Carolina repeatedly aided prosecutors in obtaining convictions during a 16-year period, mostly by misrepresenting blood evidence and keeping critical notes from defense attorneys.

Defense attorneys are calling for the closure of the state run lab and the creation of an independent lab possibly run by a private company.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has urged the lab to seek outside input or oversight, and there has been a call to end the lab’s policy of keeping reports secret.

read more

Susan Heathfield of about.com says, “How you address negativity depends on whether you control it and how it started in the first place. The timeliness of your intervention also has an impact.”

She offers this advice to deal with negativity from an individual employee.

read more