(2 Sep 1999) English/Nat
The FBI's forensic scientists will be getting a new state-of-the art laboratory.
Although it will not be ready until the year 2002 it is sure to be a welcome improvement to the FBI headquarters in Washington D-C opened in 1932..
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Louis Freeh broke ground and revealed a (US) dollars 130 million (m) crime laboratory the agency hopes will erase concerns about the quality of work at the old laboratory in Washington D-C.
The new building will be near the F-B-I training academy and on the grounds of a Marine base about 30 miles from Washington D-C.
Freeh discussed the importance of the crime laboratory to the justice system and to the work of the F-B-I.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's our job and our mission to do it right and get the facts - to make sure that our core values are the highlight and the guiding light of our mission and the performance of all of our duties. Whether they be on the workbench table at the crime scene , or at the courtroom during examination and presentation of evidence and we are proud of that. The new lab requires resources and personnel.".
SUPER CAPTION: Louis Freeh, Director of the FBI
The state-of-the-art laboratory is to open in early 2002 and will replace one that opened in 1932 in the J. Edgar Hoover building, which was made for office workers not scientists.
The old lab's 11-hundred employees performed 583-thousand forensic examinations and more than a (m) million fingerprint comparisons last year.
Much of the work is done for state law enforcement agencies that lack the expertise to conduct sophisticated D-N-A tests.
But the laboratory's work has come under the microscope of critics, who have complained about the careless handling of evidence.
Procedures were changed at the laboratory last year following an outside review by scientists and crime experts.
F-B-I Lab director Donald Kerr says the old building didn't envision the kind of work scientists do today.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The fact is that we are going to be able to do things in this building that could not be done where we are today. It was designed at the outset to address the question of proper custody of evidence, to be able to move evidence efficiently from one unit to another while at the same having laboratories in parallel with the case working areas that would allow us to work with collaborators across the country and across the world to develop new techniques and provide the leadership we should provide in the future and have provided in the past however limited by the facilities that we had at the time."
SUPER CAPTION: Donald Kerr, F-B-I Laboratory director
Critics have complained about careless handling of evidence at the F-B-I laboratory.
A scathing internal report blasted the lab for flawed work and court testimony biased in favour of prosecutors in cases such as the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings.
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