A score of law enforcement and forensic professionals from across the nation will convene at West Virginia University Sunday, Sept 9, for a week-long program presented by the College of Business and Economics.
With an award from The National Institute for Justice, the College has put together a Forensic Management Academy to help current and aspiring forensic laboratory managers, law enforcement professionals and other forensic service providers understand and use contemporary business practices to improve the practice of forensics.
The group attending is a real Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) whos who, said Maria M. Yester, director of the colleges Center for Executive Education, which is coordinating the program. Attendees include medical examiners, crime lab directors, firearms analysts and others from San Francisco to San Juan, Texas to New Hampshire, all participating in a program to enhance their management skills.
Managers of scientific laboratories see themselves as scientists first and managers second,Yester said.Skillful management of people and proper stewardship of resources is neither taught nor regularly addressed in the academic education of forensic scientists, who often are promoted to management positions.
Also, because of an aging workforce, forensic science will have an exodus of experienced laboratory managers in the next five to seven years, and training is becoming increasingly more important, she said.
In addition, technological advancements and legal mandates have led to new, more exact, and often more complicated and complex procedures that require even greater skills, Yester said.
The courts and the public, especially as a result of high profile crime and trials
JonBenet Ramsey, O.J. Simpson, for examplehave a greater, though not necessarily more realistic or valid, expectation of what forensic scientists can do and how they should perform their duties.