no and no
but i'm also in the unique position of being an staff IT pro alongside the examiners, hence i'm truted by no-one D
no + no as well, I found that complete separation is causing more problems than delivers hypothetical benefits.
Yes and Yes if that means appropriate checks and measures can be put in place
(a) to stop ping-pong blame game and bring that bad-practise to an end
(b) so that standards created and maintained by the community as opposed to ACPO doing their own thing, NPIA doing their own thing, the Home Office doing their own thing and the photocopier clerk making evidential policy for the Chief Constable and so on
© remove the inequality created by rivers of public sector funds chucked at certain firms to the detriment of the rest, thus removing (i) the police choosing their favourites and (ii) setting limits on how much one firm or company can earn from public sector funds
(d) to ensure that evidential integrity and accuracy is assessed on a case by case basis as set out by Appeal Court rulings
I have seen this being thrown around from time to time. Being in Law Enforcement, the BIGGEST hurdle we face is budget. It would be great to be able to have a private lab to do the work, but can not afford the outsourcing. Has anyone given any thought to a not-for-profit lab much like we have for crime labs?
Greetings,
Drop me a PM - I'd love to talk to you about this. I've just started looking around Central Illinois to figure out who to talk to about just this sort of arrangement.
The basic idea I've been toying with is a for profit lab that has LE rates. Without the for profit component, getting the tools and resources to provide the service gets tough.
-David
Private sector? Yes, but formerly no
Separation? Yes, kind of
I think the best thing to do in the US would be to expand the RCFLs. Although they are staffed out of LEOs, they are their own entity, and therefore less likely to be pressured by any individual investigator or agency. A small tweak to ensure their independence is all that's required.
When I worked for the police, I experienced pressure to skip things to get an investigation done faster. I always refused, and protected myself by requiring the instruction in writing. Funnily enough, no officer was ever willing to put those instructions in writing.