Published January 24, 2019

 

It’s been almost two years since I opened my business, and in that time, I’ve helped several people with their cases. Interestingly, I’ve never seen the same issue twice. Each case had flaws that mitigated the evidence, some in dramatic fashion. When I reflect on the casework I’ve seen, one thing is very clear to me. The forensic identification training and support provided to the men and women doing the work is not helping them to perform as they should. We’re getting to the point where the status quo is becoming unsustainable. Mediocre practitioners are becoming mentors which serves to accelerate what is quickly becoming, a systemic lack of competency and effectiveness in the field. Police colleges providing forensic identification training here in Canada, particularly within the friction ridge analysis discipline, need to improve training and their ability to accurately assess their students, to ensure the competency and performance expectations required of those practicing forensic identification roles. Additionally, there needs to be a better system for assessing all people, including those with rank, who have completed their forensic identification training to ensure they understand and apply their training.

In my opinion, Canadian police colleges that are unable or unwilling to do a much better job of training and assessing their forensic identification students, should hand over the responsibility to universities that are willing to take up the challenge.

The consequences of forensic identification mediocrity in the field are huge. The public will never know which cases were never prosecuted due to incompetence. The public will never
know which perpetrators were able to continue their criminal activity because they were never identified as suspects. The public will however discover the extent of law enforcement
incompetency exposed in public trials.

There used to be a saying in Canadian forensic identification circles that, “we don’t want to be the ones creating bad case law.” It appears we are now knocking on the door…
Forensic identification, particularly friction ridge analysis training is an extremely complex discipline that demands competency, standards, accreditation, and certification as well as
oversight to ensure processes are being reliably applied to real casework. Effective training and support have a significant role to play in ensuring that goal.

Shane Turnidge
www.sstforensics.com