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In the News
Detroit
City Shuts Down Error Plagued Lab
"Criminal justice officials are struggling to calculate the
impact of an audit released Thursday that exposed rampant
problems in the Detroit Police firearms laboratory and resulted
in the shutdown of the department's entire crime lab."
New York Post
Clueless Crime Labs
"The analysis of fingerprints, tire tracks and bite marks
isn't nearly as reliable as researchers once believed,
crime-scene specialists told the panel. Some even called it junk
science."
Maryland
Target gives city $300000
"Target, the big-box retailer....announced a
$300,000 donation to the Baltimore Police Department yesterday
that will help police and the store's security officials
coordinate crime-fighting efforts in West Baltimore."
Arizona
Tucson police lab faulted for
procedural problems
"The Tucson Police Department’s crime lab is
working to fix a number of problems identified earlier this year
in an inspection by a national accreditation board."
Editorial
Cut funding strategically
"Government has a responsibility to provide basic
services. Public safety, health and welfare, education and
infrastructure are the underpinnings. Other services are
important, but they are not in that top tier."
Mississippi
Potentially Flawed Science Deciding Many
Cases
A Mississippi judge recently has taken the unusual step of
allocating several thousand dollars in county funds so a
defendant, accused of murdering a Jackson State University co-ed
last November, can hire a forensic expert to examine the
evidence in the case, scheduled for trial in September.
Upcoming Meetings and
Conferences
Please send us an
email if you'd like us to announce an upcoming
event. We will post meeting announcements for major events
only.
(SWAFS) Southwestern
Association of Forensic Scientists
September 22-26, 2008 Little
Rock, Arkansas
(MAFS)
Midwestern Association of Forensic Scientists
September 28 - October 3, 2008
Des Moines, Iowa
(NEAFS) N'eastern Association of
Forensic Scientists
October 1 - 4, 2008 White Plains, New
York
(AFQAM)
Assoc. of Forensic Quality Assurance Mgrs.
October 7-10, 2008 Virginia Beach, VA
(NAFS)
Northwest Association of Forensic Scientists
November 3-7, 2008 Boise,
Idaho
(AAFS)
American Academy of Forensic Sciences
February 16-21, 2009
Denver, CO
(MAAFS) Mid Atlantic
Association of Forensic Scientists
May 4-8, 2009
Hunt Valley, MD
(AFTE)
Association of Firearm & Toolmark Examiners
May 31 - June 5, 2009
Miami Beach, FL
(Special Joint Meeting)
MAAFS, MAFS, SAFS, SWAFS
October 18-23, 2009 Orlando, FL
(IAI)
International Association for Identification
2009 Date and location to be
announced
(NAME)
National Association of Medial Examiners
September 11-16, 2009 San Francisco, CA
(ASCLD) American Society
of Crime Laboratory Directors
2009 Date and location to be
announced
(SAFS)
Southern Association of Forensic Scientists
2009 Date and location to be
announced
(IAFS) International Association of Forensic Sciences
2011 Date and location to be
announced
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Salary Study is Underway!
Attention Crime Lab Directors!
Our 2008 Salary & Stability Survey is now active. We are urging you to ask your
scientists, managers, and technicians to subscribe to Crime Lab
Report and complete the survey. It
takes only 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Data will be
published next spring.
Complete the survey
About the survey
Preview
the questions
Announcements
DNA Trends and Issues: A High Impact Summit
for Law Enforcement. October 20-21 in Knoxville,
TN
Please click here to view brochure.
Vacancy Announcement - Director of
Forensic Services
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
Click here to view posting
Lori Chamberlain
Associate Personnel Administrator
Division of Criminal Justice Services
4 Tower Place, Albany, NY 12203
(518) 485-7696
Forensic Library for Sale - A
massive collection of books related to forensic science and
firearm & toolmarks is for sale. Please contact Bobby
Blackburn for more information.
Bobby D. Blackburn
P.O. Box 860
Ingram, TX 78025
(830) 367-3536 Home
(210) 274-7666 Cell
bblkburn@ktc.com
A Hot Topic - Licensing
At the 2008 ASCLD Symposium an exciting and
thought-provoking panel discussion took place about the
necessity or futility of governmental oversight and/or licensing for forensic
scientists.
While the argument in favor of licensing may seem
compelling at first glance, many forensic science leaders argue
that laboratory accreditation augmented by a national peer-based certification
program is the best course of action. The following links will direct you to
some very interesting reading that looks critically at licensing
and its ability to achieve what it is designed to do.
Occupational Licensing
"Licensing laws have
exerted a negative influence in many professions by inhibiting
innovations in practice, training, education, and organization
of services. The most prominent examples in recent years are the
efforts of the organized medical profession to inhibit prepaid
health plans and of lawyers to ban low-cost legal clinics."
Book Review: Licensing Occupations:
Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?
"Morris Kleiner, an economist who teaches at the University of
Minnesota and is a visiting scholar in the economics department
of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, takes a careful look at
the issue in Licensing Occupations and comes to the conclusion
that occupational licensing statutes do little or nothing to
protect consumers, but do tend to raise the price of services."
Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or
Restricting Competition (Google
Books Online)
"This book examines the impact of occupational
licensing on who gets to work in the licensed occupation. It
focuses on the question of whether this labor market institution
results in consumers receiving higher-quality services, as well
as if there are enhanced earnings for practitioners and higher
prices for consumers."
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