The National Academy of Science Has Been Perfecting Double-speak

In an interesting analysis conducted by the NAS (under orders of Congress), scientists find that forensics in the US are not up to par. Their recommendation?

It concludes that Congress should create a federal agency to guarantee the independence of the field, which has been dominated by law enforcement agencies…

How does creating one giant bureaucracy that oversees all forensics make the industry more independent? It’s like saying that school uniform stores across the country are currently dominated by private religious schools, and, therefore, that these many individual stores (or chains of stores) would only become independent if there was a federal agency coordinating their efforts.

Part of the proposed agency’s job would be to “finance research and training and promote universal standards in forensic science.” As an example of who sets the standards in science education in this country, Chemistry departments in colleges and universities spend a great deal of effort to be certified by the American Chemical Society (notice that the URL ends in .org not .gov). Of course, the feds play a role in many areas, but these external audits are crucial for colleges to compete with each other for the best students.

The NAS appears to have correctly noted the problem with forensics – law enforcement and prosecution are the main buyers. The solution is not to further consolidate our judicial and legislative systems, but rather to realign the duties of police forces towards protection of private property and separate these duties from the state itself. Senator Shelby hopes that the NAS’s report will “provide an objective and unbiased perspective of the critical needs of our crime labs.” Well, who do you think this new agency will hire? Bias in the direction of more state power is the name of the game when scientists rely on the feds to fund their research and supplement their salaries. (Not to mention that taxpayers forked over $1.5 million to fund this particular study.)

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12:33 pm on February 5, 2009