Houston’s Forensic Lab: From National Disgrace to National Model

After many years of bad press, people nationwide had heard of the disastrous condition of the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory, and similar stories emerged about labs around the country. The need for improvement became clear. However, comprehending the causes of dysfunctional labs, and more importantly, the path toward improving forensic labs remains elusive.

So, Grits has asked me to announce the publication of my book, Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions through Independent Forensic Laboratories, published this year by Carolina Academic Press. The book addresses the national problems plaguing forensic science, holding up the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory as a prime example. It details how shoddy forensic science contributed to the wrongful conviction of George Rodriguez who served 17 years in prison before being exonerated. The book then delves into the most critical areas of national concern in forensic science including cognitive bias in lab testing, underfunding of labs, proficiency testing, accreditation, forensic fraud, and the basic reliability of various forensic disciplines, among other issues. A press release about the book is found here. This month West Virginia University law professor Valena Beety announced on the Forensics Forum blog (announcement found here) that she will be publishing a book review on Cops in Lab Coats in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law (book review is here).

The book does not just trash the HPD lab, however. It also tells the tale of a lab transformed. It details the city’s project to remove the lab from the organizational control of HPD and make it an independent lab. Making police labs independent of law enforcement was recommended by the National Academy of Sciences in their comprehensive report of forensic science (here). In April of 2014, the HPD Crime Lab ceased to exist, and the Houston Forensic Science Center took its place. In the process of making the lab independent, city leaders also invested in the lab, hiring leaders with national, and even international, reputations and providing support for improvements across the entire lab, leading to internationally-recognized accreditation for the lab which was announced in September of 2014. The elimination of its massive sexual assault kit backlog in 2013 is yet another way the lab has made huge strides of late, as reported by Grits here.

This month the Houston Forensic Science Center caused a national buzz in the forensic science community by announcing the adoption of blind systemic and proficiency testing in its toxicology section. The Cops in Lab Coats book details the importance of having proper quality controls in forensic testing, one of which is a rigorous system for checking an analyst’s proficiency and making sure the whole assembly line of work proceeds properly. While forensic lab representatives around the country have debated whether blind proficiency testing was even feasible, the Houston lab simply moved ahead and did it. I posted an announcement last week about the new blind proficiency testing here. This is only one of the ways the Houston lab is distinguishing itself these days, further buttressing the argument for independence and adequate funding in forensic science.

Ed. note: This is the inaugural post from Prof. Sandra Guerra Thompson, the latest of Grits phalanx of outstanding new contributing writers who brings with her years of academic experience focusing on many of the topics this blog covers. She was on the original Timothy Cole Panel on Wrongful Convictions, has published the new book described in this post on forensic error, and is the director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law School. I'm excited she's agreed to write here and help class up the joint. Welcome aboard, Sandy!