A NEW ERA OF OPENNESS?

Matthew Gamette-Idaho State Police Forensic Services

Who?

VirginiaNorth CarolinaIndianaIdaho

(Arkansas, FBI, others…)

Idaho Story

Management Review Improvement Idea Transparency Proud of our manuals Leadership Breath Alcohol (already posting manuals and

other…) Requests for manuals from other labs trying for ISO

MFRC process mapping for online electronic submission forms and putting lab reports online

Burdensome discovery and PRR Requests for same items

Initial Analyst Response

Fear of unknown: court (my testimony be harder) defense (they will compare the manuals) public (will there be more scrutiny)

Skeptical of time savings and implementation

Idaho Implementation

Website redesign (CPM project) http://www.isp.idaho.gov/forensics/index.html IT help

No internal/external website capability Access to post to the external website Securing documents Revision dates

Day 1—this date forward for archives All disciplines AMs, quality/operation

manuals, breath alcohol instrument calibration, officer training certificates, training manuals, accreditation

Expect the Unexpected

Day 2 visit with ISP command staff Defense community scrutiny of

documents Calls from customers Watermark issue Mixed response from prosecutors Time it takes to edit/secure/post the

information

Positives…

Transparency PRR certification example Public defender project averted

Analyst time savings on discovery requests Virtually eliminated public record requests More educated questions in court Less cat and mouse for documents Customer traffic to our website

Challenges

New idea to the courts watermark, electronic notary, electronic

records Motions to dismiss based on AM changes

What’s next…

Online submission of evidence Better online reporting and agency

notification COMPLETE CASE ELECTRONIC

DISCOVERY FORESIGHT accountability numbers

Virginia

Started in an effort for transparency General fear and trepidation--sky did not fall Good feedback from customers No repercussions Other forensic scientists use them for

accreditation No problems with court Scientists feared being more challenged in court

Training manuals online as well—but not getting many questions

Openness has been positive Customers understand what methods they can

and cannot perform from the website

Virginia

Some labs borrowing heavily and just replacing the header

Still finding a significant amount of discovery for documents

Keeping them up to date is key—not automated Web posting is checklist item for document

revision Web hosted by another state agency

North Carolina

Response to the issues they had a few years ago

To aid with defense and lots of records requests

The most current controlled copy on the intranet—QM updates the external based on availability

North Carolina

Forensic Science advisory board goes online to look at documents

Encourage the public to access the documents and the lab responds to the public feedback (unintended benefit)

Favorable impression from the public (local people) and people from other agencies and defense attorneys (openness)

North Carolina

Difficult to update them on the website (Qualtrax will help with that—RFP out at this time)

QM gets calls from public saying they cannot download the document so they have to fix things on the web (forgot to link or incorrect link)

Have to address all the public comments No change for the analysts testimony

Don’t think the attorneys are using them any more

No more discovery games

North Carolina

Everything is heavily reviewed by internal lawyers Agency lawyers set the format and protocol

Amazed at how open the lab system is Discovery is not an issue Lab has nothing to hide Proud of their documents It allows them to examine the document and get

some feedback on better ways to do things Audit reports also go online and attorney’s

review, but external audits get posted as written

Indiana

Driven by discovery, transparency, and customer service

Have been uploading for several years

Based for law enforcement and the courts

Customers appreciated the submission forms and physical evidence documents online

Indiana

Fewer defense requests for discovery

Very positive customer feedbackGeneric manuals online but will not be putting audit reports or corrective actions online

Time savings for analysts and management

Indiana

Automatic hyperlinked and updated—no additional work to keep the documents current

Take Home…

More positives than negatives Fears mostly don’t materialize Viewed as transparent and customer

driven Beware of the technical challenges Efficiency tool As labs share ideas openly, we all get

better!