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Can we help you, Sir?
EDITORIAL
Can we help you, Sir?
"Service-work done to meet some general need; ready to obey orders or be used; what employee or subordinate or vassal is bound t o ; work done on behalf of employer; provision of what is necessary for due maintenance of thing or operation."
These are just some of the ways in which the Oxford English Dictionary chooses to define "service". To all those involved in the forensic sciences, the word "service" is central to their existence; it is their raison d2tre. They provide a forensic science service-r do they? The central feature of any good service is that it meets the need of the employer of that service-in their case, the judicial system. This does not mean police forces, or government departments, or legal representatives, or judges, or victims, or defendants, but all these interdependent groups as one integrated body. How far does any service meet the needs of its judicial system? Is it true that financial restraints imposed upon police forces mean that only a selection of exhibits out of a much larger number, in a case, are presented to a forensic science laboratory for examination? The implications of this may not be fully understood by the judicial system in terms of the interpretation of any analytical results for the courts. Are forensic science laboratories overburdened with work to the extent that policemen are discouraged from submitting exhibits because of the time required for processing? Such delays can result in long periods of remand for prisoners or even the release of dangerous criminals on bail. What reasons are there for any delay in processing cases? Do they arise from insufficient staffing levels or the wrong use of staff already employed? Are these staff inadequately provided for in terms of equipment, training and state of morale to "provide what is necessary for due maintenance of [the] operation?" Is the recipient able to exploit the service to the maximum benefit of the judicial process? Why do the legal profession, policemen and forensic scientists find it so difficult to communicate in terms that each can understand, to maximize the impact of the services they each give to the legal process? Can a service only be provided through a business-structured organization driven by the profit motive, or are there some services which a society must have, irrespective of cost, because they form an essential part of the foundations of that structured and complex society? I would maintain that JFSS 1992; 32(4): 287-288
287
any judicial system is the rock upon which its society will develop or founder. It is a measure of our state of civilization. Do we wish to leave it in the hands of businessmen? May those who are responsible for those services, especially the forensic sciences, have the courage to face up to, and the vision to overcome, those who would emasculate the legal process for an unsustainable creed.
JFSS 1992;32(4): 287-288
Can we help you, Sir?
"Service-work done to meet some general need; ready to obey orders or be used; what employee or subordinate or vassal is bound t o ; work done on behalf of employer; provision of what is necessary for due maintenance of thing or operation."
These are just some of the ways in which the Oxford English Dictionary chooses to define "service". To all those involved in the forensic sciences, the word "service" is central to their existence; it is their raison d2tre. They provide a forensic science service-r do they? The central feature of any good service is that it meets the need of the employer of that service-in their case, the judicial system. This does not mean police forces, or government departments, or legal representatives, or judges, or victims, or defendants, but all these interdependent groups as one integrated body. How far does any service meet the needs of its judicial system? Is it true that financial restraints imposed upon police forces mean that only a selection of exhibits out of a much larger number, in a case, are presented to a forensic science laboratory for examination? The implications of this may not be fully understood by the judicial system in terms of the interpretation of any analytical results for the courts. Are forensic science laboratories overburdened with work to the extent that policemen are discouraged from submitting exhibits because of the time required for processing? Such delays can result in long periods of remand for prisoners or even the release of dangerous criminals on bail. What reasons are there for any delay in processing cases? Do they arise from insufficient staffing levels or the wrong use of staff already employed? Are these staff inadequately provided for in terms of equipment, training and state of morale to "provide what is necessary for due maintenance of [the] operation?" Is the recipient able to exploit the service to the maximum benefit of the judicial process? Why do the legal profession, policemen and forensic scientists find it so difficult to communicate in terms that each can understand, to maximize the impact of the services they each give to the legal process? Can a service only be provided through a business-structured organization driven by the profit motive, or are there some services which a society must have, irrespective of cost, because they form an essential part of the foundations of that structured and complex society? I would maintain that JFSS 1992; 32(4): 287-288
287
any judicial system is the rock upon which its society will develop or founder. It is a measure of our state of civilization. Do we wish to leave it in the hands of businessmen? May those who are responsible for those services, especially the forensic sciences, have the courage to face up to, and the vision to overcome, those who would emasculate the legal process for an unsustainable creed.
JFSS 1992;32(4): 287-288