LA Times reporters Joel Rubin and Richard Winton have a story about the LAPD’s fingerprint analysts that requires our attention:
The Los Angeles Police Department has acknowledged in a confidential report that people have been falsely implicated in crimes because the department’s fingerprint experts wrongly identified them as suspects.
The 10-page internal report, obtained by The Times, highlighted two cases in which criminal defendants had charges against them dropped after problems with the fingerprint analysis were exposed. LAPD officials do not know how many other people might have been wrongly accused over the years as a result of poor fingerprint analysis and do not have the funds to pay for a comprehensive audit to find out, according to police records and interviews.
“This is something of extraordinary concern,” said Michael Judge, public defender for Los Angeles County. “Juries tend to accord the highest level of confidence to fingerprint evidence. This is the type of thing that easily could lead to innocent people being convicted.”
Ya think?
Los Angeles police officials had initially planned to hire an outside expert last year to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the unit. They failed, however, to secure the $325,000 to $450,000 from city coffers needed for the review. In-house auditors were used instead, but Sims-Lewis acknowledged that they did not have the expertise required to comprehensively examine the unit’s past and current practices.
“We still want outside eyes to come in and make sure we’re doing things right,” she said. The focus of the audit would be improving the operation, officials said, but they also believe it would uncover past errors if any had been made.
Although there is no way to be certain without the full audit, Sim-Lewis said she was confident that faulty work by the unit had not sent an innocent person to prison or freed someone who was guilty. Mistakes, she said, would have been caught by experts hired by defense attorneys.
No, actually, they wouldn’t have been. There is no guarantee of that at all. Most of LA’s public defenders are the best and most dedicated of people. But I have also personally witnessed instances in which a PD assumed that his client was guilty—whether he or she was or not—and did little to challenge anything. Faced with fingerprint evidence, it would be worse. Too many overloaded defense attorneys would never imagine the fingerprints were anything but accurate.
Public Defender Mike Judge does not think all is hunky dory either and has asked the city to hire an outside auditor.
Judge is right. We are in difficult budgetary times. But there are some things we must find the money to afford. This is one of them.
We cannot take a chance with innocence.
http://borderreporter.com/?p=667
This story’s about a month old, but I like it because it serves as a tidy example of the inanity behind the lack of intelligence in U.S.-Mexico border enforcement.
I dug up the federal search warrant last week during a cursory check of court records, and found this narrative from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Tucson concerning one, Moises Chavez Ramirez.
Chavez is a migrant smuggler sitting in a U.S. prison after having worked this border for nearly a decade. But before he was captured this last time, Chavez was arrested and deported 13 times, sometimes even after agents identified him as a smuggler first.
Couple of years ago I was on the road (Silver City NM) and tired as hell when I checked into the Motel, I left my digital camera on the seat and the window cracked open about an inch.
Next morning of course the camera was gone. I informed the Motel Mgr and he called the cops who arrived and after seeing all the fingerprint smudges on the window decided to call the fingerprint guys in.
They arrived and got the fingerprint kit out but didn’t seem very professional to me, kind of unsure of what they were doing.
One Officer opens my truck door but when he tries to spray the chemical on the window nothing came out of the container.
He shakes the thing a few times and tries again but instead of spraying the window the spray shoots this metallic colored crap all over the inside of my truck.
The officer throws away the can of fingerprint spray and gets a new one and completes the task at hand.
Never heard a thing from the Police of course but it took me hours to get the fingerprint spray off the truck interior.
Years ago an old LAPD Detective told me that hardly anyone ever gets busted due to Police investigations. He said wanted criminals usually get caught when they run a red light in front of a squad car or are arrested committing another crime.
Cops never say good-bye. They’re always hoping to see you again in the line-up.
– Raymond Chandler
The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio’s top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations. The justices overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio’s top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.
Note to Don Quixote. It’s been proven that noplaitos from the jar are the best cleaner for fingerprint spray. Try it. Those slimy bastards can remove most any grime or film. Look at what they’ll do to your stomach lining.
D.Q. He shakes the thing a few times and tries again but instead of spraying the window the spray shoots this metallic colored crap all over the inside of my truck.
I hope the policeman got a bonus.
– – –
Just In, the Court ruled that private citizens cannot sue under the federal statute, which needs to be corrected. They did not rule on the merits, for which the Democratic SoS is clearly in violation.
Ohio’s SoS refuses to do her job as required by federal law and is in on the vote fraud.
Nopalitos from the jar are good for most any kitchen clean up EXCEPT fingerprint spray. The combination of the cactus slime and the metallic powder creates a cement that is very hard to remove without EVOO and some love.