Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am Eric Buel, Director of the Vermont Forensic Laboratory. Our laboratory is the only forensic laboratory in the State of Vermont. The forensic services we provide to the citizens of Vermont include the traditional forensic disciplines such, as fingerprints and drug analysis, and also modern DNA analysis. The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors has accredited our laboratory and we follow national standards in the analytical procedures we perform.
I am here today to offer support for the Paul Coverdell National Forensic Sciences Improvement Act and I thank you for the opportunity to express my views on the need for such legislation for our laboratory and for the forensic community as a whole.
Forensic laboratories provide critical information to the criminal justice system. Without the analyses conducted by forensic laboratories many cases would go untried, many police investigations would be stalled, innocent individuals may not be exonerated, and criminals would be on the street victimizing our citizens. The criminal justice system is a puzzle with interlocking pieces. Any piece removed, and the puzzle is incomplete. Forensic science represents a significant piece to that puzzle that must be appropriately supported. Supporting a greater police presence to fight the drug problem must be balanced with additional resources to the laboratory to provide the drug analysis necessary for court action. Vermont has seen a 130% increase in arrests for heroin in just three years. The drug problem in Vermont is real, and demands across-the-board support. The forensic laboratory must not be forgotten when these issues are addressed.
I started my forensic career some twenty years ago as a bench chemist performing drug and body fluid analyses. Instruments in those days were unsophisticated, typically inexpensive, and many types of analyses didn’t require an instrumental approach. Our analysis of body fluids led to courtroom testimony in which linking a suspect to a piece of evidence with a statistic of 1 in 10 was considered powerful testimony. Today methods for the analysis of body fluid evidence can, in essence, uniquely link a suspect to a crime. Minute traces of evidence that were considered analytically insignificant now yield valuable information.
About 10 years ago DNA analysis became available and many forensic laboratories across the country began to offer this service. The ability to offer truly powerful testimony concerning the source of biological stains put forensic science in the spotlight. Experts from outside the forensic community critically appraised the analyses that were performed. Other forensic disciplines soon found their work evaluated and critiqued. The entire forensic community began to form working groups that reviewed and made recommendations concerning protocols and procedures. Laboratories with an eye towards improving current services began to implement these recommendations and sought to expand the services provided to the criminal justice system.
The challenge of improving and expanding services comes with a cost. Much of the instrumentation now considered routine had not been invented or perfected for forensic applications twenty years ago. This instrumentation is expensive, requires regular maintenance, and must be replaced after a certain defined lifetime. Many forensic analyses are complex and require considerable training and experience. Forensic fingerprint and firearms examiners require years of training to allow them to proffer testimony in court. The ability to obtain a DNA profile from a drop of blood the size of a pinhead and offer testimony in court concerning the relevance of that result takes considerable training and experience. New techniques and technologies continue to drive our science. We cannot sanction the use of these new sciences without appropriate training, but we are asked to provide the latest methods to the people we serve. We would not ask an engineer with minimal training or outdated tools to design a bridge. We must not ask forensic scientists to perform analyses without proper training and instrumentation. We must do everything we can to supply the training and tools necessary to provide the types of analysis people of our state and country expect and deserve.
The analytical tools and methods employed in the analysis of evidence should be housed in facilities designed for 21st century science. These facilities must be constructed to address contamination issues, instrument needs, variable analytical demands, and worker safety. Old or poorly designed facilities may compromise proper evidence analysis. Appropriate facilities should be constructed specifically for forensic science with adequate space to perform the wide variety of forensic examinations encountered in the field. Working environments that allow for safe and healthy working conditions should not be considered a luxury, but should be standard in all laboratories. Support personnel should be available to allow highly trained scientists to concentrate on casework analysis without ancillary distractions. The establishment of well-designed forensic laboratories in each state capable of supporting well-trained staff should become a priority.
Vermont is a small rural state with a population of about 600,000. The crime rate in Vermont is relatively low compared to that of the nation. However, we have seen an increase in the submission of sexual assault cases, other violent assaults, and drug cases. Case submissions requesting DNA analysis have nearly doubled in three years. Each DNA case takes considerable time and effort; and additional staff is required to keep up with current casework and to expand into the analysis of non-suspect DNA samples for inclusion into the national DNA database known as CODIS. Other forensic disciplines have encountered similar staffing shortages as the result of caseload increases and changes in analytical procedures. Years ago a simple dusting with powder sufficed to check a piece of evidence for latent fingerprints. Now new technologies allow us to find prints that dusting cannot reveal through the use of a superglue chamber and fluorescent dyes. Use of new technologies throughout the laboratory results in better, more thorough analysis, but requires additional examination time. Today we find that an evidentiary item may undergo many examinations to provide the forensic scientist with the most information possible. These additional exams coupled with increases in caseload place additional demands upon the forensic scientist, mandating that managers ask for increases in staff and training to appropriately meet the growing demands for service.
Vermont’s forensic laboratory is housed on the third floor of a building constructed in 1941 as part of a state mental hospital designed to house mental health patients. A study conducted on our facility published in the spring of 2000 detailed many problems with our existing facility. In short the building was never designed to house a laboratory and lacks, for instance, proper ventilation, space, and environmentally controlled rooms for instrumentation. Our laboratory often must repeat DNA analytical testing as room temperature fluctuations cause quality assurance problems with our instrument. This results in time delays for court-required casework, reduces the number of total cases that may be completed, and increases the overall cost per DNA analysis. Health and safety problems also exist. The laboratory has about half the space it needs to do the work currently performed let alone allowance for growth. The ASCLD accreditation team informed us that our facility probably would not pass the expected inspection standards in 2004, our reaccredidation date.
Forensic Science takes ideas and techniques from other fields and incorporates those that have merit (after much evaluation) within its own complement of protocols. The field is constantly engaged in finding new and better techniques to allow more information to be obtained from smaller evidentiary items. This quest has brought us to a point where the sweat from a hatband left at a crime scene could reveal the identity of a rapist, where fluorescent dyes are used to locate fingerprints on old evidence, and where small fragments of paint can identify a car from a hit and run. The field of forensic science has stepped up to the plate to offer the methods and techniques required to analyze the evidence found at crime scenes. We as a society need to make this science a priority, to allow every citizen who is a victim of crime and every individual accused of a crime the opportunity to have the evidence associated with that crime analyzed by a well-trained, well-equipped team. It can and should be done.
I am concerned about the quality of life in Vermont and know it will diminish if crime is allowed to grow and impact the citizens of the State. The Paul Coverdell National Forensic Sciences Improvement Act will allow laboratories to make necessary progress towards facility and instrumentation modernization. Together these enhancements will improve the quality and timeliness of the forensic science services provided in the State. The forensic laboratory works in conjunction with police, state’s attorneys, and the courts to assist the criminal justice system fight crime. The forensic laboratory does make a difference to the quality of life and, with NFSIA, our laboratory will do everything it can to expand and improve its services to ultimately bring the best possible forensic analysis to the people of the state of Vermont who should expect nothing less.