SNA International

get here, they don’t want to leave. Our retention rate of 98% speaks volumes to the type of company SNA is.” “That 98% retention rate of employees isn’t entirely about how much you pay them, it’s also about how rewarding the work is for them,” adds Carr. “Ultimately, they’re acting in support of a mission. SNA is strategic in what opportunities get selected for us to pursue. Part of that evaluation involves questioning: Can we positively impact the community? The world? How are we going to use forensic science to do good?” Carr believes it’s time to consider how forensic science and research can contribute to increased understanding by the public. For starters, it’s a well-known fact that media portrayals have a significant influence on public perceptions, and forensics is one of those subject matters that gets sensationalized. It’s called the “CSI Effect” – a phenomenon where exposure to primetime shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order: SVU creates unrealistically high standards for forensic science. Carr offers the following scenario to highlight the trend: “These shows are 60 minutes long. Typically, if DNA is used for forensic evidence, the crime scene technician will collect and within 10 minutes be provided a DNA profile. Within the hour, they’ve tied the case together, closed it out, and sent everybody home. So there’s this public perception that DNA evidence should be part of every criminal prosecution. I hear from attorneys that if they don’t offer DNA evidence the juries are conditioned to ask, ‘why not? Why don’t you have it?’. The reality is that forensic DNA laboratories are overloaded. Each year there are more requests for forensic DNA analysis, and the labs are often at capacity. They simply don’t have enough equipment, trained technicians, and forensic scientists. This has resulted in an overwhelming backlog of casework. The U.S. Congress has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce that backlog, nationally.