Management of crime scene units by Quebec police senior managers: Insight on forensic knowledge and understanding of key stakeholders

Over the last decade, reviews of the forensic science industry have addressed critical system failures and made recommendations for improvements to the industry These reviews identify systemic ris

Developing a strategic forensic science risk management system as a component of the forensic science system of systems

The Australian threat environment has changed as a result of global terrorism and foreign fighters, which are contributing factors to the blurring of the lines between military objectives and law e...

Why do we need a systems thinking approach to military forensic science in the contemporary world

A review was undertaken of the developments made with integrating forensic evidence into the analytical process to support police investigations. Evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, fibers, accelerants, tyre marks, and so forth, can support to differing degrees the various working theories or hypotheses about the nature of the alleged crime, the persons of interest and the modus operandi. Investigators however, either forensic or detective, bring various biases to evidence capture and analysis, biases which are better understood in the intelligence community. Structured analytical techniques have a long history in intelligence analysis, for example analysis of competing hypotheses, which serves several purposes: information sharing, clarity of communication, and to highlight the common forms of bias brought to bear in an investigation. We illustrate the representation of links based on traces and intelligence, and how these can be stored in databases permitting better “reasoning” with evidence. We also present some recommendations for integration of forensic intelligence into the investigative analytic process and review information systems in this area.

Forensic intelligence and the analytical process

While police chiefs are the main managers in policing, this chapter also underlines their role in the provision of forensic science, hardly known to be able to help define policing. A recent survey of high-ranking officers of various police forces in Quebec showed that police managers tend to focus mainly, if not exclusively, on the ability of forensic science to serve justice. It is therefore argued that the police managers’ conception of forensic science may hinder its potential to be proactively implemented in policing models. This situation should be addressed, as a more holistic application of forensic science could offer relevant insights to policing, including threat identification and resource allocations.

Forensic Science Understanding by Police Managers: New Opportunities to Re-think Its Involvement in Policing

For the past decade, the National Institute of Forensic Science (NIFS) has been involved in and committed to raising the awareness of forensic intelligence in Australia. In this context, a discussion paper was written and distributed across Australia and New Zealand covering forensic intelligence principles and offering a ‘quick reference’ guide. In addition, NIFS jointly facilitated a set of papers on forensic intelligence that was published in the Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences. The implementation of forensic intelligence requires substantial planning and adaptation within an organization. There must be commitment within an agency to refocus outcomes so that crime prevention and disruption become priorities along with the traditional focus on the court. This implies many changes including a shift from a single case focus to a multi-case focus and a breaking down of existing interdisciplinary silos. At a time of budget restrictions, the resources to implement these changes are often diff...

Sameer Prakash

Papers

The Intelligent Use of Forensic Data: An Introduction to the Principles