The increased need for crime laboratories
Crime laboratories started in Europe, when Dr. Edmond Locard, Director of the Crime Laboratory in Lyon, France, postulated the theory that an individual cannot enter or leave a location without leaving something of him- or herself behind and taking something from the location with him or her when leaving. This became the foundation for all of forensic science. Eventually in 1923, the first American crime lab came into being in the Los Angeles, California Police Department. Director John Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) realized that there was a need for a national criminal investigation laboratory and founded the FBI National Crime Laboratory that would service law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.
Discuss the following in your main post:
Explain the increased need for crime laboratories to be spread throughout the United States.
Detail the benefits of regional crime laboratories that service multijurisdictional agencies as opposed to every agency having its own laboratory.
Relate how technology impacts the ability to conduct successful prosecutions using real evidence.
What are the criteria examined by a judge when vetting a proffered expert witness by either the prosecution or defense in a criminal trial?
Sample Solution
The public outcry that resulted from a mob mass murder in Chicago, the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” which occurred on February 14, 1929, led to the creation of the Nation’s first major crime laboratory. Called the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory and located in Evanston, the lab was affiliated with Northwestern University School of Law. Opened in July 1929, it was staffed by 14 permanent and 15 associate members. Legislation creating the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation was signed into law July 2, 1932. The Bureau’s first superintendent, T.P. Sullivan, focused on expanding the availability of scientific investigation to all Illinois law enforcement agencies. Regional crime laboratories that service multijurisdictional agencies offer considerable benefits as opposed to every agency having its own laboratory. Regional labs can decrease costs for each contributing law enforcement agency by pooling resources and using economies of scale (Schoenfeld, 2017). These labs also allow access to a larger variety of specialized equipment, personnel and expertise than would be available in single-jurisdiction labs (Sandilands et al., 2016).
