FSC100H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Relate, Peel Regional Police, Police Dog
Roles and Responsibilities
Many venues, many players
➢ Scene, lab, morgue, courtroom
➢ Regardless of department/agency organization
❖ Most successful analyses of data done by varied and comparative methods
➢ Thorough collection and analysis of an variety of physical evidence
➢ Individuals provide strength in certain areas
❖ Rely on others expertise to improve understanding and piece together crime
❖ But testimony based on own work
Investigation structures
➢ No two scenes alike...
❖ No two police agencies alike
➢ Different models exist for different agencies due to: geography, population size &
density and other factors
➢ Generalists
❖ Scene processing
❖ Evidence recognition, detection & documentation
❖ Evidence Interpretation and presentation in court
❖ Benefits & weaknesses?
Specialist Model
➢ Larger agencies
➢ Separate entities/responsibilities
❖ Documenting and analyzing
❖ Laboratory examination of exhibits
❖ Evidence photography
❖ Fingerprint comparison
➢ Benefits and Weaknesses?
Scene Personnel: Police
➢ First responders
➢ Detectives/investigators
➢ Scene of Crime officers (SOCO), Forensic Identification Officers(Ident), crime
scene technicians
➢ SOCO and Ident are sworn officers
❖ Crime scene processing
❖ Training other police officers in preservation of crime scenes
❖ Perform some-off scene analyses (ex. Impression development and comparison)
➢ Crime scene technicians
❖ Civilians
❖ Work scenes from a technical standpoint
❖ Generally, not involved in investigative process
➢ May be limited to smaller scenes or less severe offenses
❖ Break and enter
❖ Stolen vehicles
Scene personnel: Others
➢ Police K9 unit
➢ Forensic Entomologist
➢ Forensic Botanist
➢ Forensic Anthropologist
➢ Missing persons/ cold cases
❖ Off-duty police
❖ Students
❖ Volunteers
Laboratories
➢ Regional police labs
❖ i.e. Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police Service
➢ Government labs
❖ Centre of forensic sciences (Ontario)
❖ RCMP, Health Canada
❖ USA: FBI, ATF
❖ Private labs
➢ Specialized DNA analysis
Regional Police Labs
➢ Fingerprints
❖ Recovery, development
❖ Photography, comparison
➢ Some firearms analyses
❖ Restoring serial numbers
❖ Trajectories & reconstructions
➢ Electronic data retrieval
➢ Preparation & submission of evidence for lab analysis
➢ Preparation of evidence for presentation in court
➢ Staffed by sworn officers and civilians
Larger Forensic Labs
➢ Example: centre of forensic sciences
➢ Conducts scientific investigations for criminal cases
➢ Separate from police agencies
❖ Clients: police and other investigators, lawyers, pathologists and coroners
➢ Staffed by civilian scientists & technologists
❖ Specialized training and experience in scientific methods
➢ Perform relevant scientific tests
➢ Consult on proper collection, packaging and submission of evidence
➢ Produce report and testify in court
