Real-Life CSI: The Mess in New York State

Of all the factors that cause wrongful convictions, shoddy testing in police agency crime laboratories is probably the most difficult to parse because the nature of the work is so technical. As a result, journalists, lawyers, law professors and others who should be investigating crime lab ineffectiveness and misconduct often shy away from the task. It is easy to conclude that without a PhD in chemistry and a companion degree in biology, no investigator can tell for certain what constitute acceptable protocol in crime laboratories.

As I previously discussed (in my December 5 posting), no crime lab runs nearly as well as those portrayed on the popular CBS network television dramas set in Las Vegas, Miami and New York City. The reality of actual police crime labs became news this week with the release of a book-length report by a New York State inspector general’s team.

The title: “Report of Investigation of the Trace Evidence Section of the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center.” That title does not ascend from the vocal chords to roll off the tongue easily. The language of the report will not be easy to comprehend, especially for a generalist. But I will study the report carefully, then share the details with you so that you can avoid the task if you like.

I can share with you, thanks to news coverage in the New York Times and elsewhere, that the portrayal of the New York State Police crime lab is ugly. Probably no crime lab will ever operate without flaws. But the situation will almost certainly improve by removing crime labs from police agency jurisdiction, giving them independent status. Such a process will cost lots of money in each state, and consume years of effort.

Still, that change would alleviate subtle and not-so-subtle pressures from police detectives and prosecutors on crime lab analysts to interpret evidence so they can nail the bad guys, even when the bad guys are innocent.

If you like, continue to tune in to CBS network television programming, and cable television re-runs of the CSI dramas. But for the sorry truth about crime labs, use your time reading such documents as inspector general’s reports with titles that fail to roll off the tongue.