Philadelphia Crime Lab Evidence Examiners May Have Failed Proficiency Test

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia police department has removed 6 of its 12 trace evidence examiners from that job at the crime lab after a testing problem indicates some of the six may have failed a proficiency test. Three examiners got one answer, three other examiners got a different answer to the same test administered by an outside provider.

The examiners are tested on their ability to identify potential trace evidence, for example blood, and each should have gotten the same answer. But before submitting the test results to the provider, Michael Garvey, director of the Forensic Science Bureau, says the department noted the examiners got different results.

"We could have waited until the external provider told us the answers, but proactively, because we know there is a problem and we don't know who the problem is with, we have taken all six off-line until we know who has passed and who hasn't."

And the implications are significant. Barring a testing error and assuming three examiners failed the test, they will have to be re-trained, and police and the DA will need to look at cases they have handled to check for mistakes.

Garvey says examiners handle a couple of hundred cases a year a piece and are tested twice a year. And this is the first time since at least 2004 someone has not passed.