The New South Wales Auditor General (Australia) released a report today in relation to the backlog of forensic evidence (both fingerprint and DNA) in the New South Wales Police Force. This relates to turn around times for the analysis of the evidence.
Please find attached the link to the NSW Police Press release and the Auditor General report. It makes for interesting reading.
Police Press Release:
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/lates ... w9MQ%3D%3D
Auditor General Report:
http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/publication ... ntents.htm
The mainstream media in NSW have already picked up on it and are running stories.
Review of Forensic Evidence in NSW (AUS)
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Cameron
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:56 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
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Cameron
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:56 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: Review of Forensic Evidence in NSW (AUS)
Further to my previous post.....
The Auditor General report has 7 main recommendations. These recommendations are:
1. "User Pays" for DNA testing - The Police will have to pay the Department of Health for every sample that is submitted (43,000 items per year for a lab with a capacity of 18,000).
2. Analysis the "Best evidence in a case" first. With a sub point of " Set a Limit on the number of fingerprint images sent for analysis for each volume crime case"
3. Process the most recent DNA cases first for volume crime matters
4. Review the "Cost effectiveness" of out sourcing arrangements for DNA and assess and monitor the "unit" cost for fingerprint analysis
5. Remove items from the DNA backlog when no longer required.
6. Measure and report on targets for time taken to analysis fingerprint evidence and review the DNA sub-sampling project
7. Report the time taken to analyse fingerprint and DNA evidence for different crime types
Point 2 for me raises the real big issue of what happens if we don't analyse the "Correct" fingerprint and catch the offender if we are only analysing a sample of the usable fingerprints. As it currently stands, the NSW Police have a turn around time of a volume crime matter of 4 to 6 weeks, and longer in Major crime (Murders/sexual assualts etc). Considering that the Fingerprint Office processes some 21,500 cases per year (Major and volume crime) I feel that 4 to 6 weeks is not bad. I wonder if the author of the report realizes that for every identification it has been checked by two experts. This slows the process down.
One of the other major problems that I have with the report is that "Police no not screen fingerprints but analyse all images of sufficient quality, regardless of their relevance or evidentiary value. This may mean they are analysing more than they need to". I thought it was the role of forensic science to analyse ALL the evidence, not some of the evidence.
If anybody out there can advise me if their department knows what the "Unit Cost" of a fingerprint Identification I would appreciate it. I have no idea how it is worked it out, is it just the time taken to do the identification, does it exclude the cost of training the Expert?
The Auditor General report has 7 main recommendations. These recommendations are:
1. "User Pays" for DNA testing - The Police will have to pay the Department of Health for every sample that is submitted (43,000 items per year for a lab with a capacity of 18,000).
2. Analysis the "Best evidence in a case" first. With a sub point of " Set a Limit on the number of fingerprint images sent for analysis for each volume crime case"
3. Process the most recent DNA cases first for volume crime matters
4. Review the "Cost effectiveness" of out sourcing arrangements for DNA and assess and monitor the "unit" cost for fingerprint analysis
5. Remove items from the DNA backlog when no longer required.
6. Measure and report on targets for time taken to analysis fingerprint evidence and review the DNA sub-sampling project
7. Report the time taken to analyse fingerprint and DNA evidence for different crime types
Point 2 for me raises the real big issue of what happens if we don't analyse the "Correct" fingerprint and catch the offender if we are only analysing a sample of the usable fingerprints. As it currently stands, the NSW Police have a turn around time of a volume crime matter of 4 to 6 weeks, and longer in Major crime (Murders/sexual assualts etc). Considering that the Fingerprint Office processes some 21,500 cases per year (Major and volume crime) I feel that 4 to 6 weeks is not bad. I wonder if the author of the report realizes that for every identification it has been checked by two experts. This slows the process down.
One of the other major problems that I have with the report is that "Police no not screen fingerprints but analyse all images of sufficient quality, regardless of their relevance or evidentiary value. This may mean they are analysing more than they need to". I thought it was the role of forensic science to analyse ALL the evidence, not some of the evidence.
If anybody out there can advise me if their department knows what the "Unit Cost" of a fingerprint Identification I would appreciate it. I have no idea how it is worked it out, is it just the time taken to do the identification, does it exclude the cost of training the Expert?
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David Fairhurst
- Posts: 196
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- Location: UK
- Contact:
Re: Review of Forensic Evidence in NSW (AUS)
Unit cost of a fingerprint Identification =
____annual budget of fingerprint lab______
annual output of fingerprint identifications
____annual budget of fingerprint lab______
annual output of fingerprint identifications