Michael C. Gizzi

Analytical Validation of a Portable Mass Spectrometer Featuring Interchangeable, Ambient Ionization Sources for High Throughput Forensic Evidence Screening

AbstractForensic evidentiary backlogs are indicative of the growing need for cost-effective, high-throughput instrumental methods. One such emerging technology that shows high promise in meeting this demand while also allowing on-site forensic investigation is portable mass spectrometric (MS) instrumentation, particularly that which enables the coupling to ambient ionization techniques. While the benefits of rapid, on-site screening of contraband can be anticipated, the inherent legal implications of field-collected data necessitates that the analytical performance of technology employed be commensurate with accepted techniques. To this end, comprehensive analytical validation studies are required before broad incorporation by forensic practitioners can be considered, and are the focus of this work. Pertinent performance characteristics such as throughput, selectivity, accuracy/precision, method robustness, and ruggedness have been investigated. Reliability in the form of false positive/negative response rates is also assessed, examining the effect of variables such as user training and experience level. To provide flexibility toward broad chemical evidence analysis, a suite of rapidly-interchangeable ion sources has been developed and characterized through the analysis of common illicit chemicals and emerging threats like substituted phenethylamines. Graphical Abstractᅟ

Methamphetamine Use and Criminal Behavior

This research seeks to broaden our understanding of methamphetamine’s (meth’s) place within the study of drugs and crime. Through extensive court records research and interviews with 200 offenders in local jails in western Colorado, this research contributes to the creation of a meth user profile and begins to identify the place of meth in the drug—crime nexus. The study compares the criminal behavior of meth users with other drug users, finding that meth users are more likely than other drug users to be drunk or high at the time of arrest and claim their crimes were related to drug use in other ways. A content analysis of criminal records demonstrates that meth users have more extensive criminal records and are more likely than other drug users to commit property crimes.

Pretextual stops, vehicle searches, and crime control: an examination of strategies used on the frontline of the war on drugs

This study uses the narratives from affidavits for warrantless arrest from two police agencies to examine the strategy of using pretextual traffic stops for drug interdiction. Officers stop a vehicle, arrest the driver on a minor offense, and then use vehicle searches to transform minor infractions into felony drug arrests. The case study illustrates how discretion, profiling, and aggressive use of search and seizure come together. The drug convictions initiated through traffic stops were overwhelmingly discretionary and seemingly pretextual, and the arrests that led to findings of contraband were themselves discretionary and mere pretexts for conducting extensive searches of automobiles and persons.

Balancing the utility and legality of implementing portable mass spectrometers coupled with ambient ionization in routine law enforcement activities

Ambient sampling, portable MS systems have the potential to allow field processing of forensic evidence, as well as serve as a flexible investigative tool during routine law enforcement activities. However, the underlying legal implications of evidentiary data require the discretion of practitioners to ensure both lawful and ethical usage. Herein, practical and theoretical usage scenarios in traffic control stops are investigated using paper spray ionization-mass spectrometry (PSI-MS) on a portable, ruggedized instrument to demonstrate the field utility for law enforcement personnel, particularly in prompting “probable cause” searching of vehicles. Specific applications include the detection and identification of trace level contraband found as surface residues on automotive surfaces, in the presence of latent fingerprints, and in conjunction with emerging evidence types like adulterated beverages and electronic cigarette liquids. In addition, the current state of U.S. search and seizure law is examined in an effort to discern the presumed legal usage modes from the full analytical potential of the technique. These studies, in turn, can assist in predetermining the investigatory and legal impacts of field deployment of similar instrumentation in policing activities.

The Implementation of Supreme Court Precedent: The Impact of Arizona v. Gant on Police Searches

While many scholars have focused on the relationship shared between the Supreme Court and lower courts, fewer have studied how those outside the judicial branch implement court policy. This study examines how police implemented a major shift in vehicle search law after the Supreme Court placed limits on search incident to arrest. Comprehensive traffic-stop data from two states are relied upon for time series intervention analyses to test the decision’s impact. Evidence of the Court’s influence is found in seriously limiting searches incident to arrest and expanding the use of alternative searches as a means to circumvent the ruling.

US courts of appeals and state supreme court responses to Arizona v. Gant: a study in judicial impact

This paper presents the results of a judicial impact study of the 2009 Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. Gant, which modified the rules police have to follow when conducting vehicle searches incident to arrest. Following up on an earlier study, this research draws on principal-agent theory to consider the differences between the responses of US courts of appeals panels to Gant with decisions of state supreme courts and attempts to understand why defendants win on Gant issues 44% of the time in state supreme courts, compared with 15% of the time in the US courts of appeals. A detailed content analysis of the opinions in 102 appellate courts decisions in which Gant could have potentially served as a controlling precedent revealed an interesting set of differences between state and federal courts. Federal judges were more likely than state supreme court justices to actively seek alternative rationales that allowed them to avoid the exclusionary rule.

Methamphetamine and its impact on the criminal justice system: a three-year examination of felony drug filings

Much of the knowledge available on the impact of methamphetamine on crime is limited to treatment populations, self-report surveys, methamphetamine laboratory seizures, and anecdotal statistics. In many ways methamphetamine has been viewed by the public as the next great drug scare, equal to or even more dangerous than the crack scare of the late 1980s. There is little hard data, however, on the extent of methamphetamines impact on the criminal justice system in individual communities. This article examines three years of felony drug filings in Mesa County, Colorado, a community that has been hard hit by methamphetamine over a 15-year period. More than 1100 methamphetamine arrests were made in the three years of the study, but virtually none of those arrests were for methamphetamine laboratory seizures. The study reports on the results of a felony drug-tracking system in a District Attorneys office, and provides both a demographic profile of methamphetamine arrestees and comparison of methamphetamine cases with other drugs. The study illustrates the impact of disruptions in Mexican drug trafficking organizations on local methamphetamine supply and demand, and demonstrates how changes in local law enforcement drug interdiction practices influence arrest statistics.