• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

In The News

2018-05-31 | Statute Impedes DNA Exonerations; Iowa Falls Behind in Freeing Innocent Convicts
“DNA has been used to test convictions and basically a lot of people across the country have been exonerated,” Swaim said. “If you draw a circle around the state of Iowa, all the states around us have had at least one and most of had multiple DNA exonerations and we've not had one,” Swaim said. That led the public defender’s office to examine problems with Iowa’s post-conviction DNA statute that was passed in 2005.

2018-05-31 | How an Unproven Forensic Science Became a Courtroom Staple
TESTIMONY FROM BLOODSTAIN-PATTERN analysts is now accepted in courts throughout the country. But in recent years, some scientists and legal scholars have questioned the training of these experts, as well as the validity of the field itself. How did a niche, unproven discipline gain a hold in the American justice system and proliferate state by state? The modern era of bloodstain-pattern analysis began when a small group of scientists and forensic investigators started testifying in cases, as experts in a new technique. Some of them went on to train hundreds of police officers, investigators and crime-lab technicians — many of whom began to testify as well.

2018-05-30 | Witness: Wrong Man Is in Prison in 1986 Slaying of Iowa Teen
The new testimony comes from Ricky Lee Smith, who was 16 and at a drinking party with Nelson’s boyfriend on Dec. 30, 1986, the evening the homicide occurred. In an affidavit signed in February, Smith says Nelson’s boyfriend and his friend left the party to pick Nelson up and returned “covered in blood” hours later. Smith says the two “looked like they had rolled around in blood,” said they might have killed someone and talked about ways to dispose of a body. He says they washed their hands with a solvent and he helped them burn their overalls in a barrel behind the home.

2018-05-26 | State's forensic testing backlog prompts East Dundee police to partner with a new crime lab
A state backlog in processing evidence has persuaded East Dundee police to partner with a new crime lab. This week, village trustees approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory, which officials said will result in a quicker turnaround on cases.

2018-05-23 | Chemistry Professor Gets $628,000 Grant to Develop New Method of Lifting Fingerprints
Hofstetter is collaborating with scientists at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Western Sydney University (WSU) in Australia, where formal testing will be conducted on the “next-generation fingermark lifters” and “on-the-spot visualization devices.” Hofstetter’s team of scientists is receiving advice and support of its efforts from several law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Natural oils and sweat from the skin can leave behind invisible, or latent, fingerprints. Detecting these prints typically requires the use of powders, chemicals or alternate light sources. Different types of tapes and casts can be used to “lift” prints from a scene so they can be taken back to a laboratory to be viewed and analyzed.

2018-05-22 | Kansas City rape kit backlog means victims are still waiting for justice
A case against a sexual predator is moving forward in Kansas City, but there are new questions about why 57-year-old Arthur Norman Jr. was left on the streets for 18 months after what's believed to be his latest known attack. As it turns out, Arthur Norman had attacked women and girls before. In the Eudora case, a 23-year-old Norman was convicted after breaking into a home and trying to rape two women, ages 40 and 18, and an 11-year-old girl. Norman went to prison and served 15 years of a 40-year sentence. Almost two years to the day after his release, he molested a 6-year-old girl in Jackson County, Missouri. For that crime he served nearly seven years. Norman is a serial sexual predator. Others like him are kept on the streets during lengthy forensic testing.

2018-05-21 | Wisconsin Man, Casualty Of Flawed Hair Forensics, Latest To Be Exonerated
A Wisconsin man who spent two decades in prison based in part on flawed FBI forensic work has been cleared of rape, battery and burglary charges, the latest in a series of exonerations around the country based on the now-discredited technique of microscopic hair comparison. Dane County Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara approved a motion by the Dane County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday to dismiss all charges against Richard Beranek, 59. In the motion, the prosecution said while it still has a "strong belief" in Beranek’s guilt, it was dropping the charges to spare the victim of the 1987 home invasion and sexual assault from additional trauma. On Friday, attorneys for Beranek said the dismissal came just days after DNA testing on crime scene evidence "revealed a distinct male DNA profile that was not Mr. Beranek’s."

2018-05-21 | The unconscionable backlog of unprocessed rape kits in California
Yet for years many law enforcement agencies have struggled with enormous backlogs in the processing of those rape kits due to lack of funding or follow-through, or, in many cases, because the identity of the accused isn't in question. Two proposed laws in Sacramento would help create a better understanding of the scope of the backlog in California — no reliable estimate exists — and require local law enforcement and crime labs to process the kits and submit valid DNA samples to a state database. Both bills deserve support. The rape kit backlog is, unfortunately, not a new problem, though some jurisdictions have worked hard to address the issue. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to pressure from Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups a decade ago and worked its way through a backlog of more than 6,000 kits.

2018-05-20 | In 1983, four people were murdered in a home in Chino Hills, Calif.
Soon sheriff’s deputies were swarming all over the Ryen house in affluent, suburban Chino Hills, east of Los Angeles, that day in June 1983. Several signs, including Josh’s personal account, pointed to three white attackers, and blond or brown hairs were found in the victims’ hands, as if torn off in a struggle. Sheriff’s deputies were also contacted by the woman whose boyfriend was a convicted murderer, recently released from prison, whom she suspected of involvement in the Ryen killings. She not only gave deputies his bloody coveralls but also told them that his hatchet was missing from his tool rack and resembled one of the weapons reportedly used in the attacks. But instead of testing the coveralls for the Ryens’ blood, the deputies threw them away–and pursued Cooper. After a racially charged trial, he was convicted of murdering the Ryens and Chris Hughes and is now on death row at San Quentin Prison. Gov. Jerry Brown is refusing to allow advanced DNA testing that might finally resolve the question of who committed the murders, even though Cooper’s defense would pay for it. Brown refuses to allow even advanced testing of the blond or brown hairs that were found in the victims’ hands.

2018-05-19 | NIST Improving Rolled Fingerprint Technology (Learn More, Videos)
Fingerprint capture technology has advanced to the point where high-quality rolled prints soon might be obtained without the manual assistance of a trained device operator, according to a new report issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These advancements could help law enforcement collect information-rich prints more rapidly and economically. The document, NIST Interagency Report (NISTIR) 8210, Nail to Nail Fingerprint Challenge: Prize Analysis, details the methods used in a recent IARPA-sponsored challenge whose overall goal was to improve fingerprint capture technology.