What is Chain of Custody?
An identifiable person must always have the physical custody of a piece of evidence. In practice, this means that the submitting agent has had custody of the evidence and has submitted it to our laboratory where our evidence custodian will take charge of a piece of evidence, document its collection, and transfer custody to a forensic DNA analyst who maintains its storage in a secure place. These transactions, and every succeeding transaction between the collection of the evidence and its appearance in court, should be completely documented chronologically in order to withstand legal challenges to the authenticity of the evidence. Documentation should include the conditions under which the evidence is gathered, the identity of all evidence handlers, duration of evidence custody, security conditions while handling or storing the evidence, and the manner in which evidence is transferred to subsequent custodians each time such a transfer occurs. Chain of custody” also refers to the documen
Chain of Custody is a legal term that refers to the ability to guarantee the identity and integrity of the specimen from collection through to reporting of the test results. It is a process used to maintain and document the chronological history of the specimen. (Documents should include name or initials of the individual collecting the specimen, each person or entity subsequently having custody of it, the date the specimen was collected or transferred, employer or agency, specimen number, patient’s or employee’s name, and a brief description of the specimen.) A secure chain of custody, together with the analytical techniques used by the Regional Laboratory for Toxicology to confirm the identity of drugs present in a specimen, leads to the production of a legally defensible report.
The chain of custody is the record and process most commonly used to introduce physical evidence or the results of testing done on physical evidence. Every person who handles an item of evidence must sign and date the chain of custody form, indicating when they received the item, how it was delivered to them (mail, in person, overnight carrier, etc), and from whom. If they then passed the item along to someone else, they must record when, how, and to whom it was given. People listed on the chain of custody can be called to testify to show there was an unbroken chain from the location of the item when it was first obtained, through whatever handling it received, until it was tested or was introduced as evidence, or both. Breaking of the chain or being unable to trace the location and condition of the material generally results in the testing and/or the introduction into evidence being disallowed.
