The Rutgers Crime Lab Unit

Christine Fennessy:

Welcome to Advance Rutgers, a podcast about the many ways that Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is addressing the critical issues of our day. At Rutgers, we believe a better tomorrow starts with bigger thinking today. And our talented and driven community is improving the human condition with transformative, multidisciplinary projects. This podcast will explore those groundbreaking initiatives: what they are, why they matter, and who they benefit.

Today, we’re talking with Professor Kimberlee Moran. She’s an associate teaching professor and director of forensics at Rutgers University–Camden. She’s also the champion for the Rutgers University Crime Lab Unit, a multi-agency forensic lab that will be a one-stop shop for New Jersey’s crime investigation needs. I’m your host and producer, Christine Fennessy. Thanks for joining us.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

So the story I always tell my students is that I am a forensic scientist by mistake.

Christine Fennessy:

Professor Moran started her career in archeology. It was something she dreamt about doing since high school.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

I remember marching up to my guidance counselor and saying to him, I want to be an archeologist. What should I study? What do I need to do?

Christine Fennessy:

She studied the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians. She got her undergrad degree and became an archaeologist, and she got very focused on Mid-Atlantic archaeology.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

Which you know, was fun and interesting, but not really what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.

Christine Fennessy:

So she looked around and found a master’s program in London called forensic archaeological science. It sounded perfect. She figured she’d be learning how to excavate human remains, which is a pretty important skill for an archaeologist.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

And on the very first day of class, I realized that I had made a huge mistake. These were not ancient dead people. These were very recently deceased individuals, and this was the world of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Christine Fennessy:

It was the best mistake she ever made because, she says, archaeology is crime scene investigation.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

In both fields, you have a site or scene that you have to process in a methodical way to recover evidence of past human activity. And then you have to come up with some sort of interpretation based on those things that you recovered. And you utilize lots of different sciences to help you better understand those items that you recovered.

Christine Fennessy:

It’s an understanding that comes from good communication. The kind that comes when the experts are in constant close contact.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

And the concept behind the Rutgers Crime Lab is to actually bring everyone under one roof, because we know from lots of research that if you really want collaboration, if you really want people to work as a team, you’ve got to bring them together

Christine Fennessy:

To understand how the Rutgers University Crime Lab Unit will work, it helps to understand just how much evidence a crime can generate. Evidence that requires experts with very specific skill sets. For example, let’s say a person has gone missing in South Jersey and law enforcement has a suspect. They’ll take the suspect’s fingerprints, swab their cheek for DNA.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

And then maybe the police notice that this individual seems to have a lot of dirt on their boots and on their clothing. Maybe they search the vehicle and they find a shovel that has some dirt on it in the back.

Christine Fennessy:

The presence of that dirty shovel turns the vehicle into a crime scene.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

Crime scene investigators are going to be looking for other fingerprints somewhere in the vehicle. They’re going to be searching the vehicle for hairs and fibers, for maybe traces of blood.

Christine Fennessy:

They’ll do tests on the blood.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

And if those tests come back positive, then they’re going to need to swab that blood. And that blood is going to eventually be submitted to the laboratory for DNA testing.

Christine Fennessy:

They’ll take soil samples from the dirty shovel that they found inside the vehicle and analyze it.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

Let’s say that this particular shovel has soil that’s very indicative of the Western part of the state. Let’s say that the pollen indicates that we have a grassy field.

Christine Fennessy:

Once an area is targeted, those with expertise in clandestine burial step in.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

You can actually identify something that’s been buried sometimes years after the event if you just kind of know those environmental indicators that show that there’s been a disturbance in this environment.

Christine Fennessy:

Next comes the excavation of the remains and any potential evidence, like bullet casings or cigarette butts. And any hair and fibers on the victim are checked against those found in the vehicle.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

Just in this simple example, there are so many strings of evidence. There’s crime scene that’s at play. There’s the laboratory that’s at play. There’s the investigators that are at play. All these folks need to be communicating and working together to find our potential victim and to collect and identify the physical evidence that’s going to help us identify a perpetrator.

Christine Fennessy:

She says it’s a complicated system. So complicated that as a rough average, it can take two years for a crime to make it to court. And in New Jersey, there are several factors contributing to that delay.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We essentially have a single, central lab system with only one full-service forensic law laboratory, which means that we only have one lab in the state that provides drug chemistry, DNA, trace evidence—all the different flavors of forensic science. The other three labs that are part of this central system only handle drug evidence.

Christine Fennessy:

Professor Moran says it’s a good system.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

But it’s relatively small, compared to the volume of crime and evidence that is fed into that pipeline.

Christine Fennessy:

Another factor causing the crime-to-court delay involves evidence collection. Evidence has to be identified, collected, preserved, and sent to the lab for scientists to work on.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

But primarily in the state of New Jersey, it is uniformed officers, who may or may not have training, that are responding to the scene and collecting the evidence. We don’t have a unified approach to crime scene response.

Christine Fennessy:

A third factor is a shortage of the experts who declare the cause and manner of death.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We are severely underresourced in the state of New Jersey when it comes to medical examiner services. We do not have nearly enough pathologists. We don’t have nearly enough death scene investigators.

Christine Fennessy:

The result of all of this is a breakdown in communication between law enforcement, forensic scientists, lawyers—and ultimately a backlog of evidence.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

There is a lot of evidence that is stuck in that pipeline waiting to be tested. Sometimes a test is requested and it’s denied because the lab simply doesn’t do that thing or the evidence wasn’t collected properly in the first place. We, unfortunately, have seen some wrongful convictions. We’ve had individuals that have been exonerated, and part of their wrongful conviction was faulty forensic evidence. We have missing persons and cold cases that haven’t been solved. And we sometimes have, in the rush to get through evidence, sometimes there are things that are mishandled in the laboratory.

Christine Fennessy:

It’s an imperfect approach, one with many ramifications. But, says professor Moran…

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We have the opportunity to do better. We are an excellent system, and now is the time to really take things to the next step.

Christine Fennessy:

That next step is the Rutgers University Crime Lab Unit. Professor Moran envisions a large facility built around a central atrium. She says it’ll be home to the New Jersey State Police, and the police will have their own state-of-the-art lab. The crime lab will also house a private company that will provide DNA services.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

This is a model that is in other parts of the world where law enforcement and a service provider share this same space. And it feeds into the strategies for the investigation because you’re actually working with the lab as a partner, as opposed to just someone providing a service.

Christine Fennessy:

The crime lab will also be home to Rutgers researchers: the kind of experts who do specialized forms of forensic science like forensic anthropology, which is the study of human remains, and mitochondrial DNA, which is used to identify severely damaged or degraded DNA. They’re not services needed every day, says professor Moran. But when you do need them, you need them immediately. And right now, New Jersey ships evidence requiring these specialist services out of state.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

So we’re paying a lot of money, taxpayers’ money, to ship things. And this way we’re able to do it all in-house.

Christine Fennessy:

And finally, the crime lab will be a base for community groups—like those who help survivors of sexual violence, victims of human trafficking, and the New Jersey Innocence Project, which is now based at Rutgers University–Camden.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

So there’s a range of different community groups that can also have space within this building as well, to try to connect the science with the community and to also make sure that the community is informing the science and law enforcement.

Christine Fennessy:

So the crime lab will have law enforcement, a service provider, university researchers, and community groups all under one roof. To understand the potential impact of that proximity, let’s go back to our example from earlier, the suspect who had the dirty shovel inside their vehicle. Inside the crime lab, the police could process that vehicle evidence. The provider could analyze the blood samples and Rutgers researchers could examine the soil on the shovel.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We can then bring that information to the investigators, pull out a map of New Jersey, and start looking at areas that meet this environmental profile.

Christine Fennessy:

Rutgers experts could then assist law enforcement in identifying the burial site and excavating and processing the remains. In short, the entire process will be streamlined. Professor Moran says sharing space like this is not a new idea. It’s done by other countries, like those in the United Kingdom. She says when crimes occur in those places, people from the various units and labs get together and strategize a response.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

What sort of scenes do we have here? What sort of evidence are we looking for? What is possible? What is not possible within the realm of forensic science? And again, it just leads to a better result. Not only a faster result, but a better result, usually.

Christine Fennessy:

She says there are some jurisdictions in the U.S. that use a similar approach. But she says the Rutgers University Crime Lab Unit would establish the bar.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

In New Jersey, we really have the opportunity to demonstrate that this model leads to more effective crime scene response, more effective forensic detection of crime, and ultimately a safer community.

Christine Fennessy:

So how will the crime lab lead to a safer community? Professor Moran says that first and foremost, it’ll get offenders off the streets.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

When perpetrators are caught, that sends a clear message that “We are looking for you. You are not going to be allowed to continue to commit crimes and put the public in danger.” And a lot of research points to the fact that the number one deterrent of crime is the fear of getting caught.

Christine Fennessy:

It will also be a visible reminder that crime is taken seriously.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

If you walk past the facility that we envision, you’ll be able to see into the laboratories and you’ll be able to see the scientists working on cases.

Christine Fennessy:

And it’ll be a place where people will be heard. Professor Moran says that some of the community groups she envisions working within the crime lab may not have good working relationships with law enforcement. Sharing the same space could change that for the better.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

It gives us the opportunity for community groups and organizations to inform the work of the police and for the police to build better relationships with the organizations and groups that feed directly into the community.

Christine Fennessy:

She says that Rutgers has been building relationships with local law enforcement for a long time now, and the university provides some services to police already in areas like the recovery of human remains, drug analysis, and crime scene training. The crime lab will strengthen that connection through shared technology, equipment, and expertise.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

As law enforcement encounter new challenges out in the field, that’s able to then be fed into the research activity of what we’re doing here at the university and at the crime lab, so that we’re able to provide new technologies, better detection technology that can then be deployed back out into the field.

Christine Fennessy:

For example, take synthetic fentanyl. Professor Moran says current technology can’t always detect it. University researchers could develop methods that police could use to safely identify and handle these substances.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

So that you know right from the beginning how you should collect this substance because of its level of toxicity.

Christine Fennessy:

She says a typical forensic laboratory just doesn’t have time for that kind of research. And that’s the advantage of a university-based system. It can address the problems of today and prepare for those in the future.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

It’s really those questions of the future that directly feed into the present. We can’t catch criminals with something like DNA if somebody doesn’t do the research to develop the DNA tool to begin with.

Christine Fennessy:

The university’s other advantage? It’s a neutral space.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We really are truly working for justice. So we’re able to provide services to both law enforcement and to the defense attorneys.

Christine Fennessy:

So the crime lab will streamline a complicated crime-to-court process and build the body of research in forensic science in a space that will serve many different groups. And it will do all that while also training the next generation of professionals in the field. Professor Moran says the crime lab will expand the university’s forensic science master’s program to address critical needs in New Jersey in areas like cybercrime and forensic psychology, and in the shortage of medical examiners.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

There are lots of ways that the educational programming, the educational mission of the university, also goes directly into the activities of this laboratory. And again, directly into the service of the state of New Jersey.

Christine Fennessy:

This service to the state, to the greater good, is directly in line with the mission of Rutgers. And so Professor Moran sees the crime lab unit as a field station for the university, one that’s devoted and committed to public safety.

Kimberlee S. Moran:

We have the opportunity to really create a headquarters, here in the south [of New Jersey], that can address the range of issues in the southern counties and provide the kind of resources and services that are really lacking. It’s really exciting to be on the cusp of this. The opportunities are really endless and I’m ready to get started.

Christine Fennessy:

That’s it for today’s show. I’d like to thank Professor Moran for her time and her insight. Music in this episode is by Epidemic Sound, and you can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Multidisciplinary projects like the crime lab unit embody the innovative drive of Rutgers, New Jersey’s academic, health, and research powerhouse. Join us next time as we explore more initiatives that will better the world.