GBI closing its Handwriting Analysis Unit

ATLANTA (AP) The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is eliminating its Handwriting Analysis Unit, which had been operating for 20 years.

Experts say that the long-established crime-solving tool of handwriting comparison, which came into use more than a century ago, is going the way of snail mail and cursive penmanship.

The unit was temporarily suspended last June to allow GBI analysts time to get up to speed on their accreditation. But on May 31, the GBI permanently closed the unit. It provided services for local law enforcement agencies that are investigating forgeries, fraudulent documents, suicide notes, threatening letters, bank robbery demand notes and other questioned documents. Those agencies will now have to use private vendors.