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Police Department - Identification Section

Identification Section Feature Article

Responsibilities

The Identification Section is the forensic arm of the Detective Bureau. It is comprised of a full-service photographic laboratory, a limited-service, but very effective, crime laboratory, and a polygraph examiner. It is staffed by a Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeants, Senior Police Officer, ten civilian technicians, and a computer workstation operator. This section is responsible for the discovery, documentation, preservation, and analysis of crime-scene evidence. Laboratory forensic examination includes, but is not limited to, the chemical enhancement, classification, and comparison of fingerprints, cyanoacrylate vapor-fuming, dye staining, casting, and alternate light source applications. Specialty areas of expertise would include blood spatter interpretation, forensic entomology, and forensic archeology. Along with responding to an annual average of 11,000 crime scenes, section personnel also process prisoners and provide a repository for all criminal history files; as well as maintaining, securing, and purging of such records as required by law.

Forensic Career Opportunities

The Identification Section provides technical assistance to other law enforcement agencies and conducts forensic training at police academies, various colleges and for legal groups. Personnel are well regarded for their expert testimony. Forensics science is an ever-advancing and technical component of law enforcement Procedural and technologic advancements are continually occurring. Subsequently, as knowledge becomes increasingly more important towards the reconstruction of events having transpired in the crime scene, this same knowledge is equally important to successful prosecution.