Enhanced Situation Awareness for Forensic Labs Facebook for Forensics - Interview at the 2010 NIJ Conference

• NCJ Number: 234685
• Date Published: June 2010
• Author(s): Kyle Usbeck
• Length: 1 page
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description; Interview

Annotation

This is the video and transcript of an interview of Kyle Usbeck - National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center - at the 2010 NIJ Conference, in which he describes a program of the West Palm Beach (Florida) Sheriff's Office that is intended to improve communication among crime-scene investigators, prosecutors, the evidence unit, and collectors of physical evidence, so as to improve the efficiency of submitting evidence examination requests and modifying them.

Abstract

The program created a web site that enables all stakeholders in the evidence collection and analysis process to submit evidence examination requests and track the status of a request as it moves through the system. This program stems from the findings of many surveys and interviews that have indicated lack of communication among stakeholders in evidence collection and processing has reduced efficiency and created a bottleneck in DNA evidence processing. The web site is accessible through any web browser, computer, PDA, and cell phone with a web browser. An evaluation of this program is being conducted to determine whether or not it has reduced the agency's DNA backlog.