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"Reformers have for years recommended that all forensic labs be independent from law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies' and this is a key reform promoted by The Justice Project (2008). But fixing these problems is only half the answer' because half of the wrongful convictions attributed to misleading forensic evidence involved deliberate forensic fraud' evidence tampering' and/or perjury.
From "The Elephant in the Crime Lab," by co-authored by Sheila Berry and Larry Ytuarte; Forensic Examiner; Spring, 2009;
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The question we all asked was why? There could be a number of reasons but the main rationale I believe is to hide or highlight productivity. Whatever reason our workforce may come up with, it isn't acceptable." Mr Barrett said it had not led to wrongful fines or prosecution of people in the community, given that no driver was actually tested. But, he said, there was no "sugar-coating" that the force had let the community down. "No one can be falsely prosecuted, but it's still terrible, terrible behaviour. The community trusts us to do our job and we trust our members to do that job," he said. There is no particular station or area where the con was occurring. "It's widespread," Mr Barrett said.But, it is believed general duties and highway patrol members were largely responsible, with some rural areas overrepresented. It was not a practice found at supervised drug and alcohol bus testing sites. Governance, controls and audit functions to support preliminary breath test (PBT) compliance and monitoring will be implemented immediately, police said. Technicians are also investigating how to tamper-proof the devices."
STORY: "Police faked 258,000 breath tests in shocking 'breach of trust,' by reporter Tammy Mills, published by MSN News on June 1, 2018. (Thanks to Dr. Michael Bowers of CSIDDS - Forensics and Law in Focus - for bringing this story to our attention.")
GIST: "Victorian
police faked more than a quarter of a million roadside breath tests in
what appears to be a deliberate ruse to dupe the system. An internal investigation has found 258,000 alcohol breath tests were falsified over 5½ years, The Age has learned. It represents about 1.5 per cent of the 17.7 million tests that were conducted in that time. Police
believe officers may have been blowing into the breathalysers
themselves, most likely due to laziness and the need to meet targets. The new head of Victoria Police's Professional Standards Command called it a breach of the community's trust. "I'm confident to say that number [258,000] were falsified," Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett said. "It's terrible. It's terrible behaviour when we're the leader of road safety in the state." The Transport Accident Commission were the first to raise concerns to Victoria Police after they found an anomaly in data late last year, Mr Barrett said. Paul Jeffers Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett said it was a breach of the community's trust. It sparked an audit of the past 5½ years of data from the breathalysers. Mr Barrett said the audit found a suspicious number of breath tests were being conducted in quick succession. Normally,
there should be some space of time between each test to take into
account an officer on the road talking to a driver and breathalysing
them, before moving on to the next car. But the faked tests were occurring one after the other. This
suggests two things: an officer is either placing a finger over the
straw entry hole or they were blowing into the straw themselves. Force
command don't yet know why some members were doing this, but it could
be laziness, pressure to meet quotas of road tests or a combination of
the two. "The
question we all asked was why? There could be a number of reasons but
the main rationale I believe is to hide or highlight productivity.
Whatever reason our workforce may come up with, it isn't acceptable."
Mr
Barrett said it had not led to wrongful fines or prosecution of people
in the community, given that no driver was actually tested. But, he said, there was no "sugar-coating" that the force had let the community down. "No one can be falsely prosecuted, but it's still terrible, terrible behaviour. The community trusts us to do our job and we trust our members to do that job," he said. There is no particular station or area where the con was occurring. "It's widespread," Mr Barrett said.
But, it is believed general duties and highway patrol members were largely responsible, with some rural areas overrepresented. It was not a practice found at supervised drug and alcohol bus testing sites. Governance,
controls and audit functions to support preliminary breath test (PBT)
compliance and monitoring will be implemented immediately, police said. Technicians are also investigating how to tamper-proof the devices. "In
moving forward we are looking into a number of options for improving
and increasing our internal controls and accountability in regard to our
testing regime," Mr Barrett said. "We
are considering the feasibility of regular audits, the ability for the
PBT to include the detail of the operator and quality assurance in
relation to the issuing and distribution of straws."
But
because the devices aren't assigned to individual officers, it may be
impossible to find out which police officers were falsifying the tests. "Due
to the extended timeframe of data analysed and many variables within
the complex data set, including members who may have moved on from a
work location, what will occur is that workplace guidance will be
provided to all workplaces across the organisation," Mr Barrett said. Up to 4 million alcohol tests are conducted on drivers every year, according to a previous police statement. Victoria Police were
planning to tell the public about the stuff-up early next week after
gathering enough information to go public, Mr Barrett said. Command
had begun informing other organisations, such as the government and the
Transport and Accident Commission, of what they had so far found this
week. TAC chief Joe Calafiore said they were "made aware of anomalies" in the results. "We have received an initial briefing from Victoria Police with a further comprehensive briefing to occur," he said.""
The entire story can be found at:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/police-faked-258000-breath-tests-in-shocking-breach-of-trust/ar-AAy12Ea?ocid=st
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
