Word: sheriffs
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...before. As technicians have got better at extracting DNA from ever smaller samples, the technology has become increasingly useful, allowing evidence-rich cells to be drawn from traces of sweat, tears, saliva and blood spots a tenth of an inch across. Says Barry Fischer, director of the Los Angeles sheriff department's forensics lab: "You can get good DNA from a hatband or the nosepiece of a pair of glasses...
...Jordan's Kring. "And there are a lot of gadgets that spin, light up and make funny noises." That doesn't always go down well with real scientists. "I don't think you'll find too many criminalists who watch these shows," says criminalist Lynne Herold of the L.A. sheriff...
Even rookie criminalists are beginning to rely on snazzy science first and street smarts second. Fischer reports that when he is interviewing job applicants for the L.A. sheriff's lab, one question he asks is what they would do if they came upon a murder victim clutching a plastic bag containing a blue powder. Typically, the applicants tick off the string of high-tech tests they would conduct on the substance. What they never ask is where the body was found. "If it was in a Laundromat, he probably had detergent in the bag," says Fischer...
Clearly scientists need to be better trained, and on this score things are improving. The L.A. sheriff's office runs forensics courses for detectives that include fake murder scenes staged at a Residence Inn. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville maintains a politely named Anthropological Research Facility, a body farm where dozens of human remains lie in various states of decay in open fields to help forensic scientists better understand decomposition...
Though most buyers of cross-border insurance policies are Latino, the price and quality of Mexican health care attract non-Latinos as well. Marvin Morton, 40, a sheriff's deputy inSan Bernardino, Calif., wanted to get laser surgery to correct his deteriorating eyesight but was unable to have the procedure he wanted covered through his U.S. insurer, Kaiser Permanente. The cost out of pocket, he said, was "outrageous" at $3,000 to $5,000. So Morton and his fellow deputies lobbied their union, which came up with an alternative. The union contracted with two doctors, one in Irvine, Calif...