Earlier in 2009, the National Academies of Science released a report which conclusively found serious deficiencies in the way that forensic criminology labs are run in America. The problems include a lack of standard certification programs for labs, a lack of credentials for lab technicians, and a lack of peer-reviewed bases and methods for testing evidence. The report also points to the common problem that the “scientific labs” are almost always directly connected to a law enforcement agency and, therefore, have a built-in bias and are not truly independent, scientific agencies. In fact, law enforcement, in the form of the Justice Department, attempted to derail the National Academies report and to infiltrate the study panel with lobbyist for DNA companies. Luckily that did not work and the report was released to the dismay of many forensic labs. Fraud in these so-called crime labs is common. This website documents hundreds of cases of forensic fraud. A forensic chemist for 21 years in Oklahoma, nicknamed “Black Magic”, whose evidence helped have 23 people sentenced to death, was fired because of forensic fraud. Hundreds of cases in Detroit were recently called into question by lab fraud. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon and people are behind bars and even put to death on shaky science.
This forensic fraud is not limited to the evidence in murder cases or other serious felonies. it happens in DUI cases a lot, as well. Recently, a crime lab in Colorado Springs, Colorado was found to have falsely inflated the breath tests of at least 82 people. Toxicology reports in Colorado have been falsified before. A toxicologist there falsified reports in thousands of cases in Colorado, Texas and California. I have blogged before about the frequent cheating involved in breath test cases from around the country including on thousands of breath test DUI cases in Houston, Texas. Thousands of DUI cases in Washington were called into question by a forensic toxicologist certifying tests that she hadn’t actually performed. There are people who have been wrongly convicted of DUI and/or had their driver’s licenses and livelihoods taken away based on very shaky science.
The bottom line is that science is only as good and as honest as the people running it. A breath test or blood test in a Kansas DUI case is scientific evidence. That evidence should be based on accurate principles of science, and actual scientists should have something to do with it. Instead, police officers are in charge of the maintenance and oversight of their own breath testing programs. They are entrusted to conform to the requirements of science by the Kansas Department of Health & Environment (KDHE), the agency responsible for overseeing the testing of human breath for law enforcement purposes in Kansas. However, the KDHE can hardly be called an independent scientific agency. That agency has routinely demonstrated that it is nothing more than an arm of law enforcement, consistently shilling for and covering for the police when it comes to breath tests. Recently, the KDHE watered down their regulations for breath testing in Kansas to make it easier for police agencies to get certified, perform breath tests and make them admissible in court. Then, the KDHE failed to require that any of the agencies or the machines be certified pursuant to the new regulations. That issue is currently pending before the Kansas Supreme Court. The KDHE only requires one breath test, when an overwhelming majority of states require two (good science always requires that you do a replicate/duplicate test to confirm results – even Santa checks his list twice). All Kansas DUI blood tests are tested by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI). Again, that agency is not exactly neutral since the KBI is the chief law enforcement agency in the state.
The forensic science being employed in Kansas DUI law is just as lacking as the science reported on around the country by the National Academies. Kansas ought to adopt the recommendations of the National Academies of Science and institute an overhaul of the scientific practices in this state with respect to breath and blood testing, as well as other forensic testing. Kansas DUI cases are largely reliant on science and breath tests ought to be treated like science, especially if we are going to put people in jail and take away their ability to drive based on that science.