STATE POLICE U.P. LAB TO REMAIN OPEN

From Up North Live, etc.

MARQUETTE -- There's good news coming out of Marquette regarding the Michigan State Police Crime Lab facility.

Earlier this week, a bill was signed that would provide the lab with two-and-a-half million dollars. Nearly one million dollars was used toward the purchase of the current location on Industrial Parkway just off of Wright Street.

Since it's only one of seven labs in the State of Michigan and the only one in the U.P., it was very important that the lab be able to stay open.

"Certainly with a closure, law enforcement agencies up here would have had to transport their evidence downstate. Crime scene technicians and scientists from below the bridge would have had to come up to the Upper Peninsula on serious crime scenes, and there would have been an increased financial cost to the state, related to court," said Lab Director, David Stephens.

The money left over from the bill will go toward renovations.

FBI SEEKS "LATENT HIT OF THE YEAR"

From the FBI Web Site.

The FBI Latent Hit of the Year award was created in response to a request from the local and state law enforcement community for more details on major violent crime cases solved with the assistance of our Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The award, which goes to an outstanding latent examiner or officer who worked the case, is presented annually at the International Association for Identification conference. If you are interested in submitting a success story for consideration as a “Latent Hit of the Year,” contact the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division at FBILatentHit@leo.gov.

CRIME SCENE BOARD SEEKS APPLICANTS

Domingo Villarreal, Chair of the IAI Crime Scene Certification Board announced that the Board is seeking applicants to fill Board vacancies.

Any Certified Senior Crime Scene Analyst interested in being considered for appointment to the Crime Scene Certification Board please submit a letter and resume to the Chairperson of the Crime Scene Certification Board, Domingo Villarreal at: dvillarreal AT humblepolice.com

SPOKANE IAI CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Joe Polsi of the IAI reports the following highlights from the recent IAI Conference held in Spokane, Washington.

Several changes in IAI leadership occurred during the conference. We thank outgoing Chair of the Board of Directors, Bob Garrett for his longstanding service to the association. We also thank the two members who left the board, Kathy Hentges and Ken Smith, for the dedication to service as board members.

Congratulations to the new Fourth Vice-President, Steve Johnson and new board members, Cedric Neumann as well as Steve Meagher who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Steve Johnson.

Several items of note from the Board of Director’s meeting:

• The board chose RS&A as the IAI’s official training partner for the next three years. Several other respondents to the RFP were evaluated but the board felt the RS&A proposal best served IAI members.

• Awarded Distinguished Membership to Ken Martin and Wade Knaap

• Awarded the Good of the Association Award to Dennis Honeycutt

• Created a committee to explore the creation of a competency test for latent fingerprint examiners. This is not the same as certification.

• Several significant changes were made to the Student Knowledge Testing Program offered by the Crime Scene Certification Board. More information about that will be available in the next few months.

Persons with news of interest should submit them by e-mail to webmaster (at) moia.org or via fax at (267) 347-8923. Publishing articles in this newslatter may help satisfy requirements for IAI recertification. Consult the IAI web site for additional information.

1999-2009

Our web site, moia.org, celebrated ten years of continuous operations.

This Newsletter is an official publication of the Michigan-Ontario Identification Association (Division of the IAI).

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