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FDLE tells Senate committee privacy rules and lab capacity limit access to hospital toxicology and slow DNA turnaround
Summary
Deputy Commissioner Vaden Pollard told the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee that state and federal privacy laws restrict access to hospital-held toxicology and medical records, and that DNA analyses in FDLE's laboratory averaged about 208 days last quarter, with sexual assault kits averaging under 90 days.
Senator Martin, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, invited Vaden Pollard, deputy commissioner for investigations and forensic services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to brief the committee on how legal privacy rules and lab capacity affect homicide and other violent-crime investigations.
Pollard summarized how evidence collection, medical- examiner autopsies and statutory privacy regimes interact with investigators' ability to obtain toxicology and medical records. He said autopsy toxicology collected by a medical examiner is generally available to law enforcement while hospital-held toxicology and most medical records require a subpoena or court order. "Autopsy information is indispensable both medically and legally," Pollard said, explaining that hospital-derived lab results are treated as medical records and release requires legal process under state law and HIPAA.
The presentation stressed two legal constraints prosecutors and investigators face: the…
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