Forensic Science Queensland (FSQ) is in the middle of a radical overhaul. This move comes on the heels of two commissions of inquiry that found egregious racial discrimination in its practices. Even in-person or digital inquiries made as late as 2022 and 2023 revealed shocking results. They uncovered tainted forensic evidence related to criminal trials since 2007. FSQ has pledged to adopt a complete, in-depth re-write. This new effort should result in increased transparency, accountability, and improved quality of forensic testing.
To meet these challenges, FSQ recently appointed former chief commissioner of the NSW police and crime commission, Mick Fuller as its new director. He’s got the climb that he’s got toward this big backlog of more than 13,000 DNA samples that need to be retested. This backlog consists of about 750 DNA evidence samples associated with sexual assault cases. Fuller emphasized the urgency of his role, stating, “I haven’t come here to just babysit this place for a period of time, I’ve come here to fix the place.”
New Leadership and Strategic Changes
With this appointment of Mick Fuller, we are at a real tipping point for FSQ. He outlined his vision for the lab’s future, focusing on bringing in new scientists and ensuring that all personnel receive standardized training that meets Australian certification expectations. This initiative aims to enhance the quality of forensic testing and restore public confidence in FSQ’s capabilities.
Beyond the financial challenges, Fuller stressed the importance of making urgent cases a priority. And given that P1 cases encompass homicides and serious sexual assaults, he said those cases really require immediate attention. They’re supposed to be ironed out in four to five business days. He emphasized that in cases designated as absolute state priority, outcomes should be available, at most, within 24 hours.
FSQ is kicking off a new two-year, $50 million program. As part of their major overhaul plan, this federal government initiative would work to eliminate that backlog. Over 170 rape kits are still languishing in the lab. These will shortly be deployed offshore for advanced forensic testing. Fuller’s encouraging words are not just about what has already been accomplished. He stated that FSQ will be operationally prepared within weeks to handle manual trace sampling and high-priority cases for the Queensland Police.
Commitment to Transparency and Accountability
On a personal level, Fuller is deeply committed to making FSQ more transparent and accountable to the public. He indicated that updates regarding the backlog would be regularly published on the agency’s website, allowing Queensland residents to track improvements and progress. “And it starts with transparency,” he stressed. We will put our backlogs for the life of the contract up on our website, so that the people of Queensland can see that we are improving.
These actions follow a third investigation that determined FSQ was operating at a “critical point of failure.” The resulting findings spurred a wave of action and advocacy for immediate changes, laying the groundwork for the dramatic innovations currently being tested and enacted. Fuller certainly recognized the seriousness of the moment, but he continued to believe that things can get better.
Long-Term Challenges Ahead
While those were all very positive steps, Fuller warned that even with aggressive moves to clear it, the backlog would still take “a few years” to fully clear. The work we’ve got to do is enormous. We must retest thousands of DNA samples to make sure they’ve been preserved so that they can potentially be used in any future legal proceedings.
By the end of this year, he said, Fuller anticipates having some new robotic technology operational. This novel approach will increase FSQ’s capacity to address both backlog and upcoming cases. By the end of the year, the new robots will be up and running. We’ll have the ability to truly do volume work and other types of cases in a better way,” he said.
