Archive for the ‘DNA Detective’ Category

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DNA Laws are being passed everywhere but here!

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Many of you may have caught Carte Blanche last night where I was interviewed on behalf of The DNA Project (click here if you missed the Carte Blanche interview). The overwhelming message was that we urgently need to pass DNA legislation in SA in order to utilize our DNA Database in such a way that it provides criminal intelligence. DNA is the gold standard for criminal investigation throughout the world and yet here in SA, where it is needed the most, we are being held to ransom by the members of Parliament who have yet to resume deliberations on the DNA Bill.

Why? Why are our Parliamentarians so slow on the uptake to implement laws to regulate this amazing technology which we have at our disposal?

The first phase of the DNA Bill which dealt with fingerprints was adopted in March 2010 – it is now August 2010 and we have not heard a word from the Portfolio Committee as to when they will be returning to Parliament to consider Phase Two – DNA. The World Cup is over, and everyone else seems to have gone back to ‘business as usual’, but every inquiry I make as to the whereabouts of the people who are supposed to be looking at this bill, are met with a blank stare or worse yet, “I don’t know”. This is unacceptable. But what can we do about it? We can speak up! That’s what.

Have a look at the following link: http://www2.wnct.com/news/2010/jul/15/13/dna-sample-testing-system-expanded-new-nc-law-ar-300849/

Don’t you wish we had more politicians who acted like the Governor of North Carolina in the USA, Bev Perdue? How many of our politicians have been effected by a violent crime just like she was? But what are they doing about it?

Perdue calls DNA testing the 21st-century fingerprint and she believes it will help prevent violent crime across her state. “In many, many cases DNA becomes the difference maker,” says Governor Bev Perdue. Starting in February, police across North Carolina will take DNA samples from anyone charged with murder, rape, or other violent felony crimes. The General Assembly passed the bill in July 2010.  Officers say it will prevent crime and solve cold cases. “It also helps us exonerate the innocent because it is so precise,” said Roy Cooper, North Carolina Attorney General.

Perdue says DNA samples will keep repeat offenders off the streets, preventing crimes like the murder of her dear friend Kathy Taft.

“This became personal to me especially because one of my 30-year best friends was murdered during the spring,” said Perdue. DNA testing was used to bring Taft’s murderer to justice in May this year.

The North Carolina State law enforcement has solved nearly 1,400 crimes using the existing DNA database.  Now with earlier testing, they’re looking to solve even more.

And I love this message from Perdue for lawmakers who still call DNA testing unreasonable search and seizure. “We have 21st century science and technology that allows us to catch really bad people faster and it is really unreasonable for the elected leaders and all of us to not move forward to make our streets as safe as we can,” she said. Hear! Hear! (wish you were here!)

Attorney General Roy Cooper says the law has privacy safe guards.  It’s a felony to misuse DNA and law officers will delete DNA records from the state’s database if the person is acquitted or their charges are dismissed. In addition, Law enforcement from the local level to the SBI will now of course have new responsibilities and they’ll undergo training on how to use the swabbing kits for collecting DNA.

Now, how difficult could that be to implement in SA? What exactly is preventing us from writing a story like the one above?

Vanessa

ps. since writing this blog, one of the portfolio committee members tasked with reviewing the bill has responded to my email requesting further information on the lack of progress of the bill – see the below commentary to follow what has transpired to date. I will continue to post the responses as I receive them. V.

Posted in DNA Detective, DNA Project, Forensic Career, Latest News, Legislation, Links, Newsletter, Press | 5 Comments »

Where have all the police gone?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

It seems that most things are back to  ‘business as usual’ post the world cup, which took not only SA, but the rest of the world by storm. We seem to have been left with a wonderful sense of goodwill, patriotism, and a realisation, that if our Government really wanted to, they could control crime…. The stats on crime levels over the World Cup period are going to be released at the end of the year, and it will be interesting to see whether the crime rates rose thereafter. We all know they decreased over Jun/Jul, so only time will tell if the ‘back to business as usual’ principle applies to our SA Government relapsing into not being able to control the crime spiral we have come to live with.

Basically it all boils down to VISIBLE POLICING! They implemented it in NYC to great effect; the Western Cape have been pushing for it over the last few years to good effect and it was used during the World Cup to demonstrate how effective it really is.  We should be pushing for visible policing as one of our basic rights in this country and must be careful not to fall down the slippery slope of complacency and acceptance the further we move away from the “Great World Cup”.

My last blog published a tender from the State Forensic Lab inviting private labs to bid for business to assist the state labs with processing capacity. I received a number of queries subsequent to this blog entry around why it is important and what it means for SA. The below questions and answers hopefully cover most of the issues raised, but please feel free to email me should any other issues surrounding this bid remain unclear:

Why is this bid important and what does it mean for The DNA Project and SA?
A dynamic common to most countries that implement forensic DNA databases is the necessary development of a private sector market.  This is a natural result of the passage of database legislation.  Few country laboratory infrastructures were designed with forensic DNA databasing in mind. And the passage of legislation results in an immediate and large volume of offender testing that needs to be accomplished in order for the database to be effective.  Also, offender sample testing is conducive to automation and doesn’t require the same level of “bench” expertise that law enforcement crime scene specialists should be doing.  Ultimately, private sector automation is a more cost effective way to approach such testing.  The development of a private sector market contributes to cost efficiencies.  In the United States, when databasing first began, offender samples were being analyzed at approximately $80 per sample.  Because of competition, samples are now analyzed at less than $30 per offender sample. The DNAP has engaged widely with private forensic labs throughout South Africa who are willing to assist the state labs with their throughput capacity. We welcome this move by the state forensic labs to explore future private-public partnerships in order to facilitate the backlog and implementation plan proposed by the police to the portfolio committee to ensure the ultimate success of the legislation.

There are  three parts to the tender (apart from the general laboratory requirements): Training of SAPS personnel to collect non-invasive samples; DNA extraction/non extraction and the actual profile laboratory service.   The difficulty for anyone submitting a bid will be the lack of detail and commitment from SAPS FSL.

Service providers are advised to submit their questions and concerns to the office of SAPS SCM (Ms Jacobeth Majola) where the bid documents were collected.

In order to make any commitment, a laboratory service provider would need guaranteed sample numbers before making the substantial instrument and infrastructure investments.   A one year contract is simply too short to recoup the investment.   By the time the tender is awarded some months would have been lost from the twelve month period.   Next will be the time required to train SAPS personnel to collect samples before a single sample can be run.   However, if the database is to include, for example, all current and future prison inmates, SAPS and military personnel this could be a starting point to submit potential sample numbers for profiling.   This would assist potential service providers drawing up a business plan and possibly submitting a meaningful bid.

(1) The training of police officials to take non-intimate samples is not dependent on the Forensic Amendment Bill. The new National Heath Bill regulations permit SAPS officials to take non-intimate samples— hence SAPS require that officials at all Police Stations are trained to take the non-intimate samples when the contract is awarded. Thus officials will not be required to take suspects to a medical practitioner anymore to take the non-intimate sample- provided they are trained in terms of the National Health Regulations.

  (2) It may be unlikely that the same service provider who will perform the DNA testing services will also be performing the training of officials to take the non-intimate samples.  
* the lab performing the testing will not be required to train officials to take samples
* until the legislation is finalised, there will not be large scale DNA testing services required by the private     laboratories- pilot projects will be run
* the bids do however provide SAPS an opportunity through a formal process to report to parliament on the interested     capacity of service providers 

. (3)  Service providers must bid on their existing DNA testing capacity (indicate what is the absolute minimum quantities that will justify them to provide the service) and   also indicate what expansion they are capable/willing to do and lead time to provide the increased sample typing service.

  (4) The fact of one year for a contract being too short has been noted by and communicated to the appropriate SAPS principals.

The Portfolio Committee will be looking closely at the private sector capacity on their return from their overseas tour of International Forensic Labs, and as such it is vitally important that the private sector come on board to assist the state labs with processing capacity – the more profiles that are processed and entered onto the database, the greater the chance of a match being made.

Finally, here is an opportunity for the good guys to make money out of crime! Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

Vanessa


Posted in Crime Scenes, DNA Detective, DNA Project, Latest News, Legislation | No Comments »

Ask me about ‘DNA CSI’…

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Why DNA CSI?

In order to make people aware of the value of DNA evidence left at a crime scene, we thought that the use of a basic yet catchy acronym would go a long way towards helping people remember what to do or rather what NOT to do, when they come across or are involved in a crime scene. By following the six simple steps contained in the acronym DNA CSI, we believe that we can help educate the SA public and key sectors of the community in being able to assist the police in containing vital DNA evidence left behind after a crime has been committed.

Simply put:

The Background behind DNA CSI

During the course of 2009, The DNA Project funded the production of what it calls the “DNA Awareness Training DVD”, which it aims to utilise to provide critical crime scene awareness training throughout certain sectors of the community as well as the general public in South Africa. The training DVD contains basic information about DNA profiling and the value of DNA evidence, how to contain a crime scene as well as information about the National DNA Database and current legislation which seeks to regulate this area of the law. This information will be of benefit to all first responding crime scene officers and trainees, paramedics, CPF’s and the like, regardless of their role or rank. It will also be useful to the general public as it will enable all these sectors of the community to ensure that any DNA evidence left at the crime scene, is properly contained and preserved for collection by the Crime Scene Examiners, who in turn will be able to use that DNA evidence to provide intelligence and corroborative evidence in crime investigation.

DNA CSI DVD

The DNA Project’s core aim for 2010 is to disseminate this information throughout SA as widely as possibly in an effort to create critical DNA Awareness. The rationale behind this objective is that without the proper preservation and collection of valuable DNA evidence left at a crime scene, the opportunity to link the perpetrator to with the crime committed, will be lost.

In summary, the DVD:

  • Provides a simple summary of DNA, the techniques of DNA profiling and the benefits of a National DNA Criminal Intelligence Database in crime investigation.
  • Identifies the responsibilities of the “First Officer Attending” the crime scene with potential DNA evidence.
  • Identifies the potential sources, locations and limitations of DNA evidence.
  • Highlights the importance of the correct handling and packaging of samples from crime scenes, suspects and complainants.
  • Provides information relating to the legislation that regulates the use of DNA as an evidential tool.

The DNA Project has convened a ‘DNA CSI’ Project Team Drafting and we have busy with:

  • drafting documentation to send out to potential recipients of training together with information about the DNA Awareness training being offered.
  • Creating feedback forms, post- and pre-assessment forms and other documentation which will be used during the course of each training session.
  • Developing a Trainers Protocol which sets out precisely what each Trainer must present at each workshop in order to ensure consistency throughout the program.
  • Finding and appointing appropriate trainers in the Western cape, KZN, Gauteng, Freee State and Mpumulanga
  • Co-ordinating a Trainers Workshop on 2 June 2010 where all the Trainers will meet and discuss in detail the Trainers Protocol which has been developed by The DNA Project in order to ensure consistency in workshops.
  • Developing the Information Booklet which will be given out at each training session to recipients of training.
  • Creating a spreadsheet which contains all the potential recipients of training such as province, location, sector, number of branches per sector, contact person and contact details per sector.
  • Co-ordinating training schedules and training workshops with the recipients and trainers.

The information contained on the DVD is going to be available free of charge as will the information booklets and a DVD’s per session. Each organisation/group receiving training would be required to arrange a venue for the training presentation and the trainer would provide the projector, laptop and other training materials. Each workshop will be approximately 1 and a half hours. A minimum of ten and maximum of twenty five people per session is recommended and no more than 4 workshops in any one day are to be given per venue/trainer.

Do you want to get involved?

If you or your community/group/workforce are interested in receiving training or know of any group who would benefit from this information, please contact us via kusha@dnaproject.co.za and she will send you the necessary information.

with thanks

Vanessa

Posted in Crime Scenes, DNA Detective, DNA Project, Latest News | 3 Comments »

If you come upon a crime scene…

Friday, April 30th, 2010

We have been extremely busy putting together training protocols, workshop schedules, DNA awareness booklets and information in preparation for the launch of our ‘DNA CSI’ Awareness Campaign through which we are hoping to help educate the South African public and key sectors of the  community (security guards, CPF’s, paramedics etc) on how to preserve valuable DNA evidence on a crime scene in order to ensure that it is not damaged or destroyed before the Forensic Experts arrive.

But more of that next week…..

Whilst looking through some research material on crime scene preservation this morning, I came across an old letter that was given to me shortly after I started the DNA Project. An elderly gentleman, who had fought in the war, had heard about what I was doing, contacted me and asked to meet for coffee as he said that he had valuable material on crime scene management that he would like to give me. He was very persistent, and eventually I agreed to meet him at a public coffee shop. He turned out to be a delightful old man and I am glad I took the time to meet him albeit his crime scene management was a tad outdated!

The following letter is a transcript of what he handed to me at our meeting, in all seriousness, which I have kept to this day.  I share this with you because every now and again we need a bit of light relief,  and some days we need it more than ever: when I read it again this morning, I laughed out loud and hard, as it really is the most unique “Crime Scene Management Advice” that I have ever come across! It goes as follows, and I am typing it out verbatim,  the emphasis and CAPS, copied out as they appeared in the letter:
“IF you come upon a Crime Scene…..


STOP

LOOK

LISTEN

DO NOT blunder around like a herd of buffaloes – if you do you may, easily, destroy vital evidence and the crook will go unpunished.

STOP – freeze and LOOK carefully all around you:- is anything familiar out-of-place? Is there a footprint? Is there blood spattered about? is there a whiff of dagga about? is there a lump of human sh#% in the middle of the lounge carpet? (if so put it in a clean plastic bag eg. the one from Pick n Pay or Checkers). It could provide a vital clue.

LOOK – see above.

LISTEN – is anyone moving about? Have you got a pepper spray? (EVERYONE should have one) .

If you hear any sounds prepare to use the spray ABSOLUTELY RUTHLESSLY.

ALWAYS go for his eyes or his balls – the kneecaps can easily be broken too.”
Vanessa :)

Posted in Crime Scenes, DNA Detective, DNA Project, Latest News | No Comments »

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