FBI Computer Forensics Gets National Thumbs-Up
Source: The Bulletin web site
BY BRADLEY VASOLI, THE BULLETIN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 08, 2009

Radnor – America's criminal forensics laboratories get plenty of criticism these days, but representatives of the FBI's Philadelphia Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory (PHRCFL) said yesterday observers should find comparatively little to criticize about their facility.

Analysts at the lab, located in Radnor off of Route 30, study computerized evidence in investigations related to identity theft, terrorism, public corruption, child predation, murder and other crimes. The facility handled digital documents in the cases of the Coatesville firefighter accused of arson, the "Bonnie-and-Clyde" identity thieves and convicted former state Sen. Vince Fumo.

Yesterday, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) officially accredited the lab. The facility is one of 14 such labs in the country, not all of which have received the distinction.

"Accreditation is not something that is achieved easily, else every laboratory would be accredited now," ASCLD/LAB Executive Director Ralph Keaton said. In many cases, the process takes about two years. Forensics labs are likely to want this recognition now as much as ever because the federal government issued a report in February detailing problems it has perceived in America's evidence-analysis offices. The National Academy of Sciences' study said flawed examinations of evidence have left uncertainty hanging over many criminal convictions.

"In some cases, substantive information and testimony based on faulty forensic analyses may have contributed to wrongful convictions of innocent people," the report said. "This fact has demonstrated the potential danger of giving undue weight to evidence and testimony derived from imperfect testing and analysis."

Mr. Keaton said he doesn't take the report as a case for pessimism.

"I believe that forensic science can bring itself up," he said.

Doing so by receiving the ASCLD/LAB accreditation, Laboratory Director J.P. McDonald said, is important when the evidence analyzed at the facility is discussed in court.

"Maybe the courtroom will have a little more confidence that we are following the standards," he said.

It often examines computers for records helpful to investigations, but it conducts analysis on any electronic device that can store contact information and other data. It increasingly finds itself analyzing cellular phones, and it handled 250 of them last year and expects to examine more this year. In the Coatesville arson case alone, the office examined 10 cell phones.

Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us

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