TJ Phaserman 2 Posted October 17, 2008 LOS ANGELES – Police have arrested innocent people due to faulty fingerprint analysis but have not determined how many cases were affected by such errors, police officials said. A confidential police report details two cases in which charges were dropped after problems with the fingerprint analysis were discovered, the Los Angeles Times reported late Thursday. Police blame shoddy work and poor oversight for the mistakes. "This is very, very serious," said Rhonda Sims-Lewis, chief of the Police Department's administrative and technical bureau. "We feel very compelled to take quick action when something like this arises. Guilty people can be set free and innocent people can be jailed." One fingerprint analyst, who was involved in both the mishandled cases, was fired and three others were suspended last year after internal investigations, Sims-Lewis said. Two supervisors in the department's latent print unit were replaced. "This is something of extraordinary concern," said Michael Judge, public defender for Los Angeles County. "Juries tend to afford the highest level of confidence to fingerprint evidence. This is the type of thing that easily could lead to innocent people being convicted." The report details the case of a pregnant hospital technician who was charged with breaking into a store in February 2006 because of an erroneous fingerprint identification. The department said prints in that case were lost and could not be re-examined. The charge was dropped. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Odie 0 Posted October 17, 2008 I hope those who where false convented will sue LAPD for their lack of oversight. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
