CLPEX Chat Board

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Our lab policy is that we will not examine evidence that has been previously processed by another agency, but that exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis.

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Most of our cases are lifts that have been processed by other agencies. Occasionally, we'll also get in photos of prints. We accept almost all of these cases.

Sometimes we'll get in items that were previously powdered. We usually send those cases back.

I've hear of some agencies that have their CSI's glue items in the field and then submit them to the lab. Theoretically, the prints are better when glued right away and the evidence packaging won't rub off the glued prints. I don't recall glued evidence being submitted to us, but we would probably accept it in most cases.

My agency periodically reviews old unsolved homicide cases and will resubmit items to the laboratory for reanalysis or reprocessing. Generally if the item(s) was/were fully processed using currently available methods (CA + dye stain) we'll look the items over and see if there are any latent prints to photograph. If the item(s) was/were processed using methods only available to that era (powder) we'll run them through CA and dye stain. In both cases most of the items sent back to the laboratory are swabbed.