So You Want To Be...A Criminal Scene Investigator?
Dusting For Prints? No Prob. Fire Some Guns? Sure. Dead Bodies? Umm, no.
Mike Bloom
Issue date: 3/24/09 Section: News
"We are an accredited public crime lab in New York State," said Dowd. "In 2007, we were the first to implement computer forensics in New York State, 13th in the country, and 22nd in the world."
But Westchester's forensic unit isn't like the one you would see on C.S.I. Miami or C.S.I. New York. Dowd explained to me that what they do on those types of shows is "simply… unrealistic." He even critiqued the databases they use on the programs, claiming that the ease of the investigation process is next to impossible.
"Nobody can do what they do in a 45 minute interval," commented Dowd sternly. "These latent print investigators do post-mortem fingerprinting with dead bodies. Now you don't see that on C.S.I. You can't show through television how much a dead body smells."
In the department there are four distinct forensic science divisions: ballistics, crime scene, latent prints, and digital evidence/computer forensics.
Each division is made up of its own trained and highly-experienced personnel. Of the 12 detectives in the unit, there are three investigators assigned to digital evidence, three for ballistics, and six for investigation to latent print who also double as crime scene investigators.
The crime lab is publicly funded and according to Dowd, who cited Article 4ab, "…we are accredited by the American Society of Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD), a lab accreditation board."
Dowd also mentioned that the lab "…meets hundreds of different criteria laid out by the ASCLD. We must stay in conformance with their criteria."
The lab must also be granted credibility for a five-year period by the Legacy Certificate. As of April 2008, the lab was re-certified.
"We have to make sure the tools we are using are current for the science we are practicing," said Dowd.
I saw firsthand how these tools work and just how complicated the process is, how advanced the technology was, and how precise and patient a forensic investigator had to be.
But Westchester's forensic unit isn't like the one you would see on C.S.I. Miami or C.S.I. New York. Dowd explained to me that what they do on those types of shows is "simply… unrealistic." He even critiqued the databases they use on the programs, claiming that the ease of the investigation process is next to impossible.
"Nobody can do what they do in a 45 minute interval," commented Dowd sternly. "These latent print investigators do post-mortem fingerprinting with dead bodies. Now you don't see that on C.S.I. You can't show through television how much a dead body smells."
In the department there are four distinct forensic science divisions: ballistics, crime scene, latent prints, and digital evidence/computer forensics.
Each division is made up of its own trained and highly-experienced personnel. Of the 12 detectives in the unit, there are three investigators assigned to digital evidence, three for ballistics, and six for investigation to latent print who also double as crime scene investigators.
The crime lab is publicly funded and according to Dowd, who cited Article 4ab, "…we are accredited by the American Society of Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD), a lab accreditation board."
Dowd also mentioned that the lab "…meets hundreds of different criteria laid out by the ASCLD. We must stay in conformance with their criteria."
The lab must also be granted credibility for a five-year period by the Legacy Certificate. As of April 2008, the lab was re-certified.
"We have to make sure the tools we are using are current for the science we are practicing," said Dowd.
I saw firsthand how these tools work and just how complicated the process is, how advanced the technology was, and how precise and patient a forensic investigator had to be.
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Houston Mattress
posted 6/28/10 @ 3:37 PM EST
Quote:
"Along with those two gentlemen, I spent a few hours with the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and observed many components that make up a crime investigation unit. (Continued…)
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