The Austin American Statesman published an investigative article
on the 18th of January about Travis County's colossal negligence that
led to the spoil of a freezer full of DNA samples at their crime lab.
The article goes into detail about how Travis County employees that
worked in the lab admitted in emails that they thought that the DNA
samples that were in the freezer had been compromised as well as how the
Austin Police Department believed that the DNA testing lab was "deeply
flawed".
This incident occurred last spring when crime lab employees failed
to notice that one of their freezers, that contained hundreds of DNA
samples, had stopped working. The system that they had in place to alert
them if the temperature rose past a certain amount malfunctioned, so
instead of someone being informed of the error so that it could be
corrected within a few hours, no one took notice of the improper
temperature for eight days. But what is far more troubling is the fact
that the forensic lab decided to keep the incident quiet, and dare I say
"cover up" this oversight, alerting no one outside the lab of this
serious matter. To make matters worse, the lead forensic scientist kept
putting all the blame on lack of funding.
I was shocked when I read this article. It has made me far less
trustworthy of our police force and now wonder how many other matters of
have gone unreported in different departments. It also bothers me that
no one has reported any repercussions for the individuals responsible
for the malfunction.
