Ventura County Grand Jury
• 2000-2001
Ventura County Grand Jury Report Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab
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⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 23 findings
F1
In 1992, the total number of Dry Drug (solid dosage) cases received by the crime lab was 831. By 1999 that number had increased to 1646 cases and in year 2000, the total number increased to 1791.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
As of April 12, 2001, the backlog of solid dosage drug cases in Ventura County’s crime lab stood at 385 cases.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
The building the Crime Lab occupies is seriously outdated.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F4
The construction of the building does not readily accommodate new technological equipment, i.e.: forensic test equipment, computers, and networking.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F5
The Crime Lab area was originally designed to accommodate a staff of 8 people, but now must accommodate a staff of 25 people, plus 4 to 6 students, in the same basic area.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F6
O.S.H.A. has recommended that each staff member in a forensic laboratory have 1,300 square feet of working space. Presently, each person has approximately 258 square feet of space.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F7
The State Auditor Post Inspection Report of Dec. 1998 states, “Current forensic laboratory design literature indicates that the ratios for recently constructed forensic laboratories fall between the range of 700 to 1,000 square feet per staff member. In addition, the Department of General Services recently contracted with an architectural consulting firm to design six new state-operated regional laboratories with an even higher average ratio of approximately 1,300 square feet per staff member.”
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F8
Although management has plans for a minor remodel, lab manage- ment has stated that the gain in space will suffice for at most four to five years. The remodel is estimated to increase working space from the present 250 square feet per person to approximately 470 square feet per person.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Every effort must be made by County Supervisors, and involved Depart- ment Heads, and Administrators to secure funding for the location and construction of a new Sheriff’s Crime Lab facility by 2006, in part to implement plans in association with CSUCI. (Ref. F-6, F-7, F-15, C-7) 22 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Commendations The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14,
F9
At the present time, there are no formal plans drawn for the remodel.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The planned move and modification (remodel) of the existing areas should be funded and carried out as soon as possible, complete with formalized plans. (F-8, C-2, C-9)
F10
The Sheriff’s Evidence Booking/Property room has reached capacity. (Photos 1 and 2)
No recommendations for this finding
F11
Refrigeration units have been added to the premises in the garage and parking lot areas to handle the overflow of evidence from the property room (Photo 3) 18 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Photo 1-Laboratory Freezer Photo 2-Property Room Photo 3-Freezers in Outdoor Parking Area 19 Final Report 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury
No recommendations for this finding
F12
In the Crime Lab, every available space has been used for storage, even to the extent of using hallways. (Photo 4)
No recommendations for this finding
F13
It takes 90 minutes round trip travel time to retrieve evidence or case files that must be stored off site at the Women’s Detention Facility in Ojai.
No recommendations for this finding
F14
The employee lounge also serves as a classroom, conference room, library, and storage room. Employee’s lockers were relocated to an adjacent hallway, as more space was required for the library. (Photos 5 and 6)
No recommendations for this finding
F15
In order to become more competitive in the recruitment of the highly qualified personnel, Crime Lab management has suggested that an intern- ship program be established with CSUCI, Ventura County’s only 4 year University. The lab currently has the staff qualified to instruct interns.
No recommendations for this finding
F16
State certification of the DNA portion of the lab will expire in June 2002.
No recommendations for this finding
F17
If certification of the lab’s DNA section cannot be maintained, DNA evidence would be sent to another facility, with established credibility, to be processed. Depending on the quantity of evidence involved and the facility selected the expense becomes an issue.
No recommendations for this finding
F18
The application for state certification must be submitted to the State Certification Board well in advance of the certification expiration date due to the lag time it takes for state inspectors to respond.
No recommendations for this finding
F19
The application for re-certification may be conditional upon the entire lab becoming certified.
No recommendations for this finding
F20
The current power situation and the frequent power outages or interrup- tions have caused biological evidence, stored in refrigerated units that failed due to the outages, to be rendered useless. As a result, drug cases were dismissed in court for lack of evidence. Although the District Attorney re-filed on some of these cases, the process takes time and money, and the defendant has to be rearrested.
No recommendations for this finding
F21
Frequent power outages or interruptions have also caused sophisticated test equipment and computers to re-boot and lose valuable data. Costly man-hours must then be expended to recover this data.
No recommendations for this finding
F22
At the present time, there is no system of adequate and reliable back-up power, i.e.: uninterruptible power source (UPS) power regulators for all sensitive circuits in the lab.
No recommendations for this finding
F23
A classification in the budget exists for the position of Assistant Forensic Laboratory Manager but has not yet been funded. Conclusions C-1 Due to the workload, and the many and varied tasks required of the current manager of the forensic crime lab, there is an obvious need to fund and fill the position of Assistant Forensic Laboratory Manager. (F-23) 20 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Photo 6-Staff Lockers in Hallway Photo 4-Evidence Files Stored in Hallway Photo 5-Library/Lunch Room/Conference 21 Final Report 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury C-2 The serious space problem that presently exists, if allowed to continue, will further hamper efforts to stay in step with the rapidly increasing caseloads. (F-1, F-14) C-3 Workspace must be nearly tripled in order to prevent possible cross contamination of evidence in some areas of the lab. This is a legal as well as an expense issue. (F-1 through F-14) C-4 Maintaining State Certification is at risk. Thus, the ability to follow up cold cases, and thereby apprehend predatory type criminals would be placed in jeopardy. (F-17 through F-19) C-5 Without state certification of the DNA section of the lab, DNA evidence would have to be sent to another lab for analysis. This could result in delays in prosecution of criminals as well as increased expense to the Ventura County’s justice system and ultimately, its taxpayers. (F-17 through
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Dept. Chief in charge of Special Services, and the Commander in charge of technical services should continue to make every effort to hire an Assistant Forensic Crime Lab Manager (C-1)
Conclusions 1
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CL1 Page 6C-1 Due to the workload, and the many and varied tasks required of the current manager of the forensic crime lab, there is an obvious need to fund and fill the position of Assistant Forensic Laboratory Manager. (F-23) 20 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury Final Report Photo 6-Staff Lockers in Hallway Photo 4-Evidence Files Stored in Hallway Photo 5-Library/Lunch Room/Conference 21 Final Report 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury C-2 The serious space problem that presently exists, if allowed to continue, will further hamper efforts to stay in step with the rapidly increasing caseloads. (F-1, F-14) C-3 Workspace must be nearly tripled in order to prevent possible cross contamination of evidence in some areas of the lab. This is a legal as well as an expense issue. (F-1 through F-14) C-4 Maintaining State Certification is at risk. Thus, the ability to follow up cold cases, and thereby apprehend predatory type criminals would be placed in jeopardy. (F-17 through F-19) C-5 Without state certification of the DNA section of the lab, DNA evidence would have to be sent to another lab for analysis. This could result in delays in prosecution of criminals as well as increased expense to the Ventura County’s justice system and ultimately, its taxpayers. (F-17 through F-19) C-6 Due to our State’s current unreliable power source situation, UPS back up power systems must be in place by this summer. (F-20 through F-22) C-7 The current cramped working conditions throughout the lab may hamper the proposed internship program with CSUCI. This could also affect the ability to attract the highly skilled personnel required in our Crime Lab. (F-5 through F-19) C-8 The proposed remodel will still leave the facility with less than half of the recommended workspace per person which is considerably smaller than the 1,300 square feet per person mentioned in the State Auditor report and that O.S.H.A. recommends. (F-6 through F-8) C-9 While a remodel is better than nothing, it will only serve as a temporary fix for, at most, four or five years. (F-8)
Commendations 1
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CM1 Page 9The management of the Crime Lab, as well as the entire staff, is commended for exemplary work under formidable circumstances. Despite adverse working conditions, accuracy has not been sacrificed. The citizens of Ventura County are indeed fortunate for having this team to serve their needs. (F-8, F-14, F-21, C-1)
No Responses Found 3
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