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Police add yet another massively inaccurate tool to their arsenal which they can easily put innocent people behind bars. For example, bite mark “evidence” has

Police add yet another massively inaccurate tool to their arsenal which they can easily put innocent people behind bars. For example, bite mark “evidence” has been long disproven as having no basis in fact, but that doesn’t stop prosecutors from using it.

ChristianBundy 8y ago
Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't bite mark evidence used to catch Ted Bundy?
- dbasedweeb 8y ago
  Not really, and frankly as with many prolific serial killers the active ingredient was police incompetence rather than rare genius of the killer. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy#Arrest_and_first_trial https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy#Arrest_and_first_t...
- JustSomeNobody 8y ago
  Not catch per se, but it was used in the trial.
losteric 8y ago
Alternatively, politicians continue cutting police budgets, forcing them to replace people with underperforming computers.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Where on earth is this happening? I would like to move there. In my county/state/nation, the federal government makes up new funding programs every year to induce local departments to hire ever more assholes to pry ever more into the lives of their subjects.
derefr 8y ago
Bite mark evidence is fine... if what you’re trying to prove is whether the bite came from a human or an animal. It doesn’t do much more than that. There are a lot of forensic analyses like that: you can’t really use them to pinpoint a suspect; but they’re great at proving that a whole class of suspects couldn’t have been responsible. The real problem with police is the thought process that leads to playing Guess Who with suspects. Only one person of interest has no alibi, and can’t be excluded? They must have done it then, even if we have literally no proof positive that they did, and have no idea what the evidence in favour of all the people we haven’t looked at yet would be.
Silhouette 8y ago
Police add yet another massively inaccurate tool to their arsenal which they can easily put innocent people behind bars. In what way can this possibly put innocent people behind bars, never mind easily? The article specifically notes that any hits on the system are then checked by real police officers before any further action is taken, and from that point surely the same processes and controls will apply as if an officer thought they'd recognised a person of interest as part of their normal activity.
jaredklewis 8y ago
Indeed. Anyone in for a depressing read should look into the history of bite mark analysis as used by US prosecutors. Scientifically, it is 100% bunk. Basically the equivalent of the cops paying top dollar to psychics to tell them who did a crime. - Thorough background on why it is bunk (start page 83): https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/PCAST/pcast_forensic_science_report_final.pdf https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/mic... - Some stories of people imprisoned (often for decades) by bite mark analysis before being exonerated by DNA evidence: https://www.innocenceproject.org/all-cases/#bitemark-analysis,exonerated-by-dna https://www.innocenceproject.org/all-cases/#bitemark-analysi... - The story of "bite mark expert" and general piece of garbage, Michael West: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/expert-witness-goes-nuts-during-questioning-for-mississippi-death-penalty-case/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/...

ChristianBundy 8y ago

Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't bite mark evidence used to catch Ted Bundy?

dbasedweeb 8y ago
Not really, and frankly as with many prolific serial killers the active ingredient was police incompetence rather than rare genius of the killer. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy#Arrest_and_first_trial https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy#Arrest_and_first_t...
JustSomeNobody 8y ago
Not catch per se, but it was used in the trial.

losteric 8y ago

Alternatively, politicians continue cutting police budgets, forcing them to replace people with underperforming computers.

jessaustin 8y ago
Where on earth is this happening? I would like to move there. In my county/state/nation, the federal government makes up new funding programs every year to induce local departments to hire ever more assholes to pry ever more into the lives of their subjects.

derefr 8y ago

Bite mark evidence is fine... if what you’re trying to prove is whether the bite came from a human or an animal. It doesn’t do much more than that. There are a lot of forensic analyses like that: you can’t really use them to pinpoint a suspect; but they’re great at proving that a whole class of suspects couldn’t have been responsible. The real problem with police is the thought process that leads to playing Guess Who with suspects. Only one person of interest has no alibi, and can’t be excluded? They must have done it then, even if we have literally no proof positive that they did, and have no idea what the evidence in favour of all the people we haven’t looked at yet would be.

Silhouette 8y ago

Police add yet another massively inaccurate tool to their arsenal which they can easily put innocent people behind bars. In what way can this possibly put innocent people behind bars, never mind easily? The article specifically notes that any hits on the system are then checked by real police officers before any further action is taken, and from that point surely the same processes and controls will apply as if an officer thought they'd recognised a person of interest as part of their normal activity.

jaredklewis 8y ago

Indeed. Anyone in for a depressing read should look into the history of bite mark analysis as used by US prosecutors. Scientifically, it is 100% bunk. Basically the equivalent of the cops paying top dollar to psychics to tell them who did a crime. - Thorough background on why it is bunk (start page 83): https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/PCAST/pcast_forensic_science_report_final.pdf https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/mic... - Some stories of people imprisoned (often for decades) by bite mark analysis before being exonerated by DNA evidence: https://www.innocenceproject.org/all-cases/#bitemark-analysis,exonerated-by-dna https://www.innocenceproject.org/all-cases/#bitemark-analysi... - The story of "bite mark expert" and general piece of garbage, Michael West: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/expert-witness-goes-nuts-during-questioning-for-mississippi-death-penalty-case/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/...