• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

In The News

2018-05-09 | Court Asked to Levy Fines for Misconduct in Lab Scandal
Defense attorneys and civil libertarians in Massachusetts urged the state's highest court on Tuesday to impose fines against the state attorney general's office for the misconduct of two former prosecutors who tried to minimize the scope of a state drug lab scandal. A judge found that two former assistant attorneys general withheld evidence about the scope of the misconduct of former chemist Sonja Farak, who authorities say was high almost every day she worked at the state drug lab for eight years. Farak pleaded guilty in 2014 to stealing drugs from the state crime lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

2018-05-08 | Parabon, Known for Phenotyping, Announces Genealogy Service
Now Parabon, a company known for its composite facial images drawn from DNA profiles, is offering a new forensic genealogy service to those detectives with those nagging unfinished investigations. Already the company has screened samples from 100 agencies around the country, according to Steven Armentrout, the Parabon CEO. Approximately half the cases analyzed so far are solvable, Armentrout says. About 20 percent could be directly solvable with the genealogy methods, and another 30 percent would be likely solvable with law enforcement partnership and detection, he explained.

2018-05-01 | Houston DWI cases being reviewed because of analyst’s history of false testimony
The Harris County District Attorneys Office has been ordered by the state science commission to review DWI cases overseen by a veteran county scientist because of questions about her honesty while testifying under oath. In a report released Friday by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the state agency said Fessessework Guale, who worked for the medical examiner’s office for ten years, repeatedly testified that she received a different master's degree than what she earned and made other mistakes while testifying in criminal trials.

2018-04-30 | Earlier Search for California Serial Killer Led to Wrong Man
Investigators hunting for the so-called Golden State Killer turned to searching genetic websites in 2017 but misidentified an Oregon man as a potential suspect. A year later, after using a similar technique, they are confident they've caught the serial rapist and killer who eluded capture for four decades. In March 2017, an Oregon City police officer, working at the request of investigators in California, convinced a judge to order a 73-year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample.

2018-04-24 | Jurors Trust Expert Testimony and Match Probabilities Equally—Up to a Point
Fingerprints were the first linchpin of modern forensic science, providing a century of breakthroughs in identification. Recent efforts to reform forensic science, however, have criticized latent fingerprint analysis as not quantitative enough, and based too much on the subjective comparison of the testifying expert. Recent changes to the uniform language rules in federal courtrooms have attempted to acknowledge the uncertainty in positively making a match, to the exclusion of all others.

2018-04-23 | Photography, fingerprints, DNA lead to arrest in 1986 slaying of retiree
Decades later, technology — starting with high-quality photography and fingerprints from the slaying scene — brought a break to the cold case. On Monday, Escondido police Chief Craig Carter announced that a now-62-year-old man has been arrested and charged with Finney’s slaying. Nathan Eugene Mathis, who was 31 at the time of the killing, pleaded not guilty last week to one count of murder and an allegation that he used a knife in the attack. Mathis faces 26 years to life if convicted, and he remains jailed in lieu of $3 million bail.

2018-04-23 | DNA Links Same Unknown Rapist to 4 Penn State Attacks
The DNA evidence from a rape on the street last summer has been linked to three similar attacks from 2010 and 2011. The serial rapist’s genetic profile has not had a hit in any databases—and he remains at large, authorities said Friday, amid warnings to the Penn State community. The attack happened at approximately 1:40 a.m. on July 16, 2017. The white female was approached by a white male with an accent, who pushed her into some bushes and assaulted her, according to the State College Police Department.

2018-04-13 | 2 Montana Prisoners Cleared of 1995 Murder Conviction from Rope DNA Mix
“No DNA linked to Jenkins and Lawrence was found,” ruled Judge Kathy Seeley, sitting in Helena. “The result … matches the DNA of David Nelson—a man known to have committed similar violent kidnappings, robberies, and, in Deer Lodge, homicides.” The state of Montana has to decide whether to re-try Jenkins and Lawrence—or put Nelson on trial.

2018-04-12 | Calling for Better Police Body Cam Design
Challenges reported by both police and the public surrounding usability issues with the vast array of body cams and recording functionality prompted a study by human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) researchers from Wichita State University. In their just-published Ergonomics in Design article, “Design Considerations in the Proliferation of Police Body-Worn Cameras,” Joel Suss and colleagues identify limitations and provide some guidelines for designers.

2018-04-12 | Sweat Could Distinguish Between Individuals at Crime Scene
Halámek explained that the human body is constantly producing sweat, and that people are constantly depositing small amounts of sweat on everything they touch. Sweat is what makes up the nearly invisible latent fingerprints found on the surfaces of walls, furniture and objects, etc., and contains a multitude of chemicals including 23 different amino acids and many other metabolites.