Crime Lab Struggles to Keep Up

Is justice delayed also justice denied?

By GIL BRADY
NewWest/The Cowboy Times

Filed 10-03-07

JACKSON, Wyo.(CT) — While problems with understaffing, retention and training new scientists have contributed to half-year backlogs at the state crime lab in Cheyenne, the long delays raise the question of whether some habitual offenders are going unpunished.

“You know, the longer a perpetrator is out there, the more opportunity there is for them to commit crimes,” Forrest Bright, Director of Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), said when asked recently if repeat offenders were getting away with additional offenses due to his agency’s backlogs and personnel issues.

“Sometimes it’s the investigation,” he added. “Sometimes it takes time before forensics are discovered. That can take months or years.”

Bright said the ability to use federal and state resources, such as DCI’s expanding index of about 12,000 DNA profiles to match results, which can also be run through an FBI database, is speeding up the processing of certain types of forensic clues.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest)

It's not like TV

Cracking Crime in Wyoming can be one hard case

By GIL BRADY
Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 10.1.07

JACKSON, Wyo. -- Often with a world-weary sigh, cops call the cliched but widespread perception of crime-solving gizmos at every lawman’s disposal “the CSI effect.”

“People expect us to pull out tweezers and find that lucky hair in the corner,” Jackson Police Chief Dan Zivkovich quipped this summer about rising public expectations stemming from TV shows such as "CSI: Miami."

Noting how the “CSI effect” and crime lab delays can combine to foment perceptions, Zivkovich admitted the two factors can influence public confidence in the overall effectiveness of law enforcement.

(Click & Read on via the Casper Star-Tribune)