From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Crime Laboratory (often shorted to simply Crime Lab), is a scientific laboratory where scientists examine evidence from a criminal case. The term "Crime Lab" has become almost synonymous with the Emmy Award- winning TV drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and its two spinoffs, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. All three of these shows showcase their city's Crime Lab in every episode.

A Crime Lab deals mostly in forensic science. A typical Crime Lab has two sets of personnel. The first is the field analysts, more specifically, Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) or Crime Scene Analysts (CSA). These are the investigators that go to crime scenes and collect evidence and process the scene.

The second type of personnel in a Crime Lab are the laboratory technicians. These are the people that run experiments on the evidence once it is brought to the Crime Lab. For example, they could run DNA to match it to another sample of DNA, or they could compare striations on a bullet to a test firing of a gun.

Many major cities have their own Crime Labs, which assist smaller surrounding police departments with investigations. Many famous Crime Labs are:

• Las Vegas Crime Lab - under the jurisdiction of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
• Miami-Dade Crime Lab - under the jurisdiction of the Miami-Dade Police Department
• New York City Crime Lab - under the jurisdiction of the New York City Police Department
• Los Angeles Crime Lab - under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department
• FBI Laboratory - under the jurisdiction of the FBI (located at FBI Headquarters; J. Edgar Hoover Building)
• Forensic Science Training and Research Center - under the jurisdiction of the FBI (located at the FBI Academy; Quantico, Virginia)

[1] Rapid Stain Identification Series