#annualmaintenance

Purpose of disclosure or production of maintenance records and data

Sep 28, 2018
4 min

Purpose of disclosure or production of maintenance records and data

What is the purpose in Stinchcombe/McNeil disclosure or O'Connor production of maintenance records and historical data? Government scientists are right in saying that there is no causal relationship between the historical data and the results of a subsequent subject test. Factors like dirt in the sample chamber or degradation in the electronic signal coming out of the detector at the end of the sample chamber, over time, may cause error. Inadequate factory calibration may c

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Annual Inspections Done Without Reference to Manufacturer's Specifications

Stephen Biss

May 16, 2018
8 min

Annual Inspections Done Without Reference to Manufacturer's Specifications

This is a sample cross-examination of an Ontario CFS scientist on the procedure used to perform an initial factory calibration (or a subsequent re-calibration by the factory) of an individual Intoxilyzer 8000C. Purposes of this cross-examination: [respecting type approval by the Alcohol Test Committee and Minister of Justice] To confirm that when new instruments are being evaluated, various solutions are used between 50 and 400 mg/100mls. To confirm that when new instruments

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Relevance of Contemporaneous Documentation by Inspector Taking Instrument Out of Service

Stephen Biss

Apr 20, 2018
4 min

Relevance of Contemporaneous Documentation by Inspector Taking Instrument Out of Service

Let's suppose that as a result of a disclosure request or Freedom of Information application you find an electronic or paper document that has an entry like this one on 5/20/2015. Should you go further and seek disclosure of the police notes, checklists, and instument printouts related thereto? Are they relevant (see Vallentgoed and Gubbins) to the reliability of a measurement result obtained a few days before 5/20/2015 when the instrument was taken out of service? Purpose: T

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Stephen Biss

Apr 5, 2018
2 min

ABA Sequences v ACA Sequences

Purpose: To explain to the Court, the differences between ABA (Esc Esc B) and ACA (Esc Esc C) sequences To confirm that ABA sequences are not recorded in COBRA data but ACA sequences are recorded in COBRA data. To explain to the Court why the calibration checks at 40 or 50, 100, and 300 during annual inspections do not appear in COBRA data disclosed. Sample cross-examination of Crown expert to clarify ABA (and ACABA) sequences v. ACA sequences for the Court: Q. Just, before w

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3 Consecutive Annual Inspections Reveal a Trend Towards Unreliability

Stephen Biss

Apr 4, 2018
5 min

3 Consecutive Annual Inspections Reveal a Trend Towards Unreliability

Let's suppose that you obtain, as the result of disclosure or a Freedom of Information application of paper or electronic documents, information that police breath testing supervisors are not following their training and protocols respecting periodic inspection of their approved instruments. Let's suppose that the failures are obvious and reveal a trend over 3 years. Should you as a defence lawyer challenge the lawfulness of the search? Purposes of this example cross-examinat

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Police Fail to Correct a Linearity Problem on In-House Annual Inspection

Stephen Biss

Mar 29, 2018
6 min

Police Fail to Correct a Linearity Problem on In-House Annual Inspection

Let's suppose that you obtain disclosure or Freedom of Information documents respecting In-house Periodic Inspections by your local police service of their approved instruments. What can you do with that information? Purpose of this example cross-examination: To obtain an admission from the CFS scientist that the disclosed annual maintenance records indicate that the police failed to take any steps to correct control tests on inspection that indicated the instrument's respons

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Police No Longer Follow ATC Best Practices Respecting Tolerance

Stephen Biss

Mar 28, 2018
5 min

Police No Longer Follow ATC Best Practices Respecting Tolerance

Purpose of this sample cross-examination: To demonstrate that when the particular instrument was first placed into service, the tolerance verified by the independent authorized service centre for each of three test values was +/- 3 mg/100mls. To demonstrate that the initial verification matched the manufacturer's published specifications of accuracy +/- 3 mg/100mls. To demonstrate that when the particular instrument is subsequently being annually checked, by the police servic

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Stephen Biss

Mar 25, 2018
2 min

Establishment of Calibration Intervals

The concept of "calibration interval" is an important one in measurement science. Unfortunately most criminal law lawyers and Judges are not familiar with this concept. It will probably be necessary to lay a foundation respecting this concept during an examination-in-chief or cross-examination of an expert. You may need the help of a metrologist to do so. This is an example cross-examination that needs improvement. Purpose: To introduce the concept of "calibration interval" i

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Internal Standards Also Need Calibration and Calibration Interval

Stephen Biss

Mar 24, 2018
5 min

Internal Standards Also Need Calibration and Calibration Interval

Purpose: To explain the function of internal standards, the ITP, internal test procedure to the Court. To obtain an admission that the ITP system needs annual or periodic maintenance, just like the optical bench, so that the instrument can continue to function in accordance with manufacturer's specifications. To obtain an admission that any adjustment or re-calibration of the optical bench also requires re-calibration of the internal standards. Sample cross-examination of a C

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AI Hardware and Software Can't Measure Without Learning and Re-Learning

Stephen Biss

Feb 25, 2018
6 min

AI Hardware and Software Can't Measure Without Learning and Re-Learning

Purpose: To educate the Court as to the "why" of the unreliability of an approved instrument to measure across the measuring interval if it has not been recently calibrated, inspected, maintained, re-calibrated. It seems strange to think that a modern "approved instrument" has to "learn" - that it has a kind of artificial intelligence. In reality it's true, an approved instrument has to learn the meanings of 67 mg/100mls, 94 mg/100mls, 117 mg/100mls, and 184 mg/100mls. The ar

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Causation of Error v. Calculation of Drift in Precision - Evidence Based Assessment of Reliability

Stephen Biss

Feb 10, 2018
7 min

Causation of Error v. Calculation of Drift in Precision - Evidence Based Assessment of Reliability

What is the purpose in Stinchcombe/McNeil disclosure or O'Connor production of maintenance records and historical data? Crown CFS scientists are right in saying that there is no causal relationship between the historical data and the results of a subsequent subject test. Crown CFS scientists are incorrect in saying that maintenance records and historical data are irrelevant in assessing the scientific reliability of a measurement result. Control tests, cal. checks, and simula

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Independent Annual Inspections v In-house Inspection by Local Police

Stephen Biss

Feb 2, 2018
6 min

Independent Annual Inspections v In-house Inspection by Local Police

Purpose: To obtain admissions as to the differences in inspections, in inspection standard operating procedures, and completeness of an independent inspection v. an in-house annual or in-house periodic inspection by the local police service. To establish that these inspections are inadequate unless accompanied by complete documentation - that needs to be produced on the O'Connor application. Note the differences between two provinces: Unlike Alberta, Ontario does not have met

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Precision Testing Using Only 2 Data Points is Inadequate to Calculate Precision

Stephen Biss

Jan 28, 2018
5 min

Precision Testing Using Only 2 Data Points is Inadequate to Calculate Precision

Purpose: To elicit evidence to the Court as to the inadequacy of calculation of the instrument's precision by the local police service, close in time to the subject tests. To obtain admissions from the CFS expert as to proper methods for calculating precision. To confirm Mr. Kupferschmidt's evidence that the local police had stopped doing linearity checks by the time of this periodic inspection. Q. ..... If we go back and we count back 50 control tests. A. Yes. Q. Prior to

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Checking Analytical Variability and Accuracy of the Instrument? Where?

Stephen Biss

Jan 24, 2018
4 min

Checking Analytical Variability and Accuracy of the Instrument? Where?

Purpose: To explore the lack of a lab setting when accuracy and precision of the instrument are checked on periodic or annual inspection. To explore the lack of Standard Operating Procedures when accuracy and precision of the instrument are checked on periodic or annual inspection. Q. I see. All right. A. Now, if you wanted to look at the analytical variability and accuracy of the instrument. Q. Yes. A. Then you would have to go look at these here on page 43 of Exhibit 1

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No Supervision by ATC, CFS, or Anyone of Annual/Periodic Inspection SOPs

Stephen Biss

Jan 15, 2018
6 min

No Supervision by ATC, CFS, or Anyone of Annual/Periodic Inspection SOPs

Purpose: To show that the ATC recommendations for operational procedures at time of use do not account for the need during inspections to regularly conduct control tests at target values other than 100 mg/100mls. To demonstrate that we have no metrological supervision to ensure that linearity is checked, that manufacturer's specifications are honoured across the measuring interval. To demonstrate that searches of breath using"approved instruments" are unreasonable in Canada i

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Beer-Lambert Law as Stated in Training Aid is Over-Simplified and Inadequate

Stephen Biss

Jan 10, 2018
10 min

Beer-Lambert Law as Stated in Training Aid is Over-Simplified and Inadequate

This blog entry contains excerpts from the cross-examination of a CFS scientist during an over 80 trial. It was suggested to the scientist that light in the Intoxilyzer sample chamber is polychromatic, rather than monochromatic. The Beer-Lambert Law as described in the CFS Training Aid assumes that the infrared light in the sample chamber is monochromatic, i.e. that there is one constant co-efficient for ethyl alcohol. Because the infrared infrared light in the sample chambe

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