NYPD crime lab: Here we go again? Yet another U.S. crime lab under scrutiny: Lawmaker calls for probe of coding error that went undetected for 5 years as defence attorneys call for an immediate audit, The New York Post (Reporter Ben Feuerherd) reports...Councilmember Robert Holden, a Democrat who represents central Queens, said in a statement that he supports a probe of the error, which affected printouts at the controlled substance analysis section of the lab. “This is a serious matter that warrants investigation. We need to know the extent of it,” Holden told The Post in a statement. His support comes after Terri Rosenblatt, supervising attorney of the New York Legal Aid Society’s DNA unit, said in a statement that they are looking closely at the error, which was revealed in court documents by prosecutors and first reported by The Post."...The NYPD and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office maintain the coding error did not affect the accuracy of drug testing."

QUOTE  OF THE DAY: "The NYPD and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office maintain the coding error did not affect the accuracy of drug testing. “Suffice to say, we are not taking NYPD’s word for this, and neither should the City of New York,” Rosenblatt told The Post in an email. “This disclosure follows a pattern of other issues with software used by law enforcement in New York, whether it be a security breach in fingerprint analysis, or in programs used to analyze DNA,” she added."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

STORY: "Lawmaker says error at NYPD lab that went unchecked for five years warrants probe," by Reporter Ben Feuerherd, published by The New York Post on May 28, 2021. Thanks to Dr. Michael Bowers of CSIDDS - Forensics and Law in Focus - for bringing this story to our attention at the link below. HL.

forensics-error-at-nypd-lab-that-went-unchecked-for-5-years-warrants-probe

GIST: "A city lawmaker on Friday said a coding error at the NYPD’s police lab that went unchecked for nearly five years warrants an investigation — as the largest conglomerate of state defense attorneys in New York called for an immediate audit of the lab.

Councilmember Robert Holden, a Democrat who represents central Queens, said in a statement that he supports a probe of the error, which affected printouts at the controlled substance analysis section of the lab.

“This is a serious matter that warrants investigation. We need to know the extent of it,” Holden told The Post in a statement.

His support comes after Terri Rosenblatt, supervising attorney of the New York Legal Aid Society’s DNA unit, said in a statement that they are looking closely at the error, which was revealed in court documents by prosecutors and first reported by The Post.

The NYPD and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office maintain the coding error did not affect the accuracy of drug testing.

“Suffice to say, we are not taking NYPD’s word for this, and neither should the City of New York,” Rosenblatt told The Post in an email.

“This disclosure follows a pattern of other issues with software used by law enforcement in New York, whether it be a security breach in fingerprint analysis, or in programs used to analyze DNA,” she added.

Rosenblatt continued that a transparent review of the materials at the lab should be conducted by local elected officials.

“The City Council and the Mayor’s office should independently and transparently audit all tools used by the City’s crime lab immediately to accurately and truthfully determine the extent they may be in fact harming our clients and their communities,” she wrote.

The coding error at the lab in Jamaica, Queens, caused incorrect values to be placed in the data field of a control group on printouts generated during drug testing, according to a memo and a letter by NYPD officials.

The NYPD, state and federal prosecutors have all insisted the error — which went unnoticed from 2016 to 2021 — did not affect the accuracy of the drug tests.

A number of preventative measures were in place to ensure the testing accuracy, they wrote in the documents filed publicly in a Brooklyn federal court case.

Further, the correct values were mapped accurately on graphs included in the printouts — and the coding error only caused the number in the data field to be erroneously repeated from an earlier control test, the officials wrote.""

The entire story can be read at:

nypost.com/2021/05/28/new-york-legal-aid-society-wants-city-council-to-audit-police-lab/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

—————————————————————————————————

FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;