Forensics Institute Improves Performance with LIMS
Aspiring to merge the diverse operations of a central forensics laboratory in San Juan and three satellite operations into one single system, the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses [Institute of Forensic Sciences of Puerto Rico (ICF)] recently implemented a laboratory information management system (LIMS) that affords the ICF with a powerful, extensible and reliable information platform to mange consolidated analyses and obtain defendable results at the touch of a button.
The Puerto Rico Law 13 of July 24, 1985, not only assigns the ICF responsibility for performing autopsies to determine cause and manner of death, but also of analyzing all evidence pertaining to criminal cases. Throughout the years, the Institute has established other operational sections to offer further services to the Criminal Justice System.
Overall, personnel work with evidence in the following forensic disciplines: firearms, controlled substances, trace evidence (forensic chemistry), serology, DNA, documents, digital evidence, and autopsies and toxicological analyses. Other services offered in the institution are crime scene investigations comprising responses to homicide investigations in support of law enforcement agencies and vehicle analyses.
The ICF further provides drug screening services to the different departments of the Puerto Rico Criminal Justice System and has contracts with various government agencies and rehabilitation centers to perform screening and confirmatory procedures.
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| Figure 1: ICF forensic case statisical information |
In the past, the ICF had no LIMS to control and organize its data flow from all the operational divisions in its central laboratory and three regional laboratories. Previously, obtaining statistical information pertaining to case results, case cross-references, analyst performances, case backlogs, or other pertinent data related to overall performance was time consuming, contained discrepancies due to manual transcription errors and, when finally provided, at times was no longer useful for establishing short- and long-term goals.
The ICF’s administration searched for a LIMS solution that would be able to integrate all its evidence handling procedures, including autopsy cases and crime scene inspections, in a user-friendly, reliable and future-proof method. A forensic laboratory requires a LIMS system for efficient management of large amounts of data concerning case management information, including evidence, evidence items, victims, suspects and charges. The reliability and accuracy of forensic information provided is crucial to the ability of using such information throughout the legal process.
The ICF evaluated proposals from several companies, addressing not only the previous considerations but also others such as versatility, future options for enhancements, the possibility of future links with other agencies within the Puerto Rico Criminal Justice System, cost, availability of technical support and the response time of a request for modifications.
After the Institute selected L.I.M.S. (USA) Inc, meetings between company personnel and supervisors of the operational areas began. In establishing the new system, the implementation teams required: knowledge of the workflow, analytical and examination necessities and statistical information provisions so a suitable system could be designed. The operational areas also submitted requested spreadsheets and administrative documents to be integral components of StarLIMS.
Implementation of a harmonized forensic workflow
The project commenced in February 2002 with an initial implementation plan, which included organizing teams to accomplish data collection, validation and testing. Each project team comprised employees from analytical areas and management who provided the “know-how” on the forensic tasks performed. The StarLIMS team designed the case/evidence/analysis structure to facilitate the unification of operations in all the technical areas.
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| Login screen |
L.I.M.S. worked with the requirements and needs of the ICF by establishing a plan of implementation by phases.
Phase I
The standardization of processes in the designed structure includes a “template builder” which allows the creation of templates to input case information, evidence and requested analyses. This template builder is key to a flexible and easy-to-use environment, which allows the transfer of manual information to a systematized solution.
Evidence login and handling is one of the most important aspects of streamlining the system as it is the origin of the forensic work cycle and includes: numbering/bar-coding of the evidence, analytical or examination assignments and general information about the case such as: case number of submitting law enforcement agency, submitting officer’s badge number, submitting officer’s place of work, type of offense, pieces of evidence and name of suspects or offenders. Another area in which StarLIMS is functional is the cadaver handling procedures in the Pathology Division and its counterpart in the Toxicology Laboratory, where all the biological samples obtained from the autopsy are processed and reports prepared, providing for a complete audit trail.
The Crime Scene Unit’s response to the scene of a felony also generates evidence that may be entered in the system, through either the Pathology Division or the Evidence Unit. The software design further incorporates urine samples from the Controlled Substances Detection Program.
The chain-of-custody follows the subsequent procedures: the Section or Laboratory Supervisor assigns the casework schedule to the analyst; methods of analysis are selected and the results of the analyses are entered in the system and approved.
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| Chain of custody |
By capturing all relevant evidence submission data at the time of receipt, StarLIMS allows the forensic laboratory to perform comprehensive evidence tracking throughout the ‘life cycle’ of the investigation. The comprehensive, integrated electronic chain-of-custody provides a complete record of evidence submission transfer and laboratory activities, incorporating full transactional audit trails and electronic signatures. The utility of the internal chain-of-custody is further enhanced by full support of barcode usage throughout the system.
A certificate of analysis (COA) can be printed using two methods, directly from StarLIMS’ integrated Crystal Reports for a simple type of certificate or using a special certificate generator, which sends the data from StarLIMS to a Microsoft Word template. The COA can be accessed to change the style, format or length as needed by the analyst. This tool allows the customization of the standard template generated by StarLIMS, when more in depth explanations of results and procedures are required.
Phase II
During the next phase, the network infrastructure, including, Windows 2000 Servers (two in San Juan, and one per regional lab: Aguadilla, Arecibo and Ponce), Microsoft SQL Server database and StarLIMS client workstations were installed. Communication between San Juan and the regional labs was set up by the telephone company in Puerto Rico using a frame relay connection with encryption, because of the legal and confidential data that will travel through the WAN.
By December 2002, the Evidence Unit at the San Juan site was ready to start using StarLIMS. Since January 2003, all the evidence submitted has been entered into the system. Currently, the Controlled Substances Section has worked the complete cycle, with other operational areas about to commence their cycles.
Conclusion
StarLIMS minimizes transcription errors and reduces processing time while assisting in the management of evidence and analytical work and assuring the security of information. The system provides a wide range of statistics, per section, case, type of evidence, type of crime, and other useful information, which allows for an efficient management of all the operations.
Rosana Santiago is Lab Director, Institute of Forensic Sciences of Puerto Rico (ICF) and Jose Ferrero is Project Manager, L.I.M.S. (USA) Inc.
L.I.M.S. (USA), Inc.
4000 Hollywood Blvd., Ste 515 South, Presidential Building, Hollywood, FL 33021-6755.
