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Sep-2-2004 01:27

What is this?

Only agencies have these, right?

Do all of them have them?

Just wondering how it helps solve the cases.

Sep-2-2004 03:30

Any evidence from an agent's stored case files (in an agency, yes) can be analyzed in the crime lab. An agent can't analyze evidence from his/her own case; another agent has to do it. Each agent gets one chance each day to analyze one piece of evidence in the lab. If successful, analysis shows hair to be either curly or straight, handwriting to be either left or right-handed, and threads to be from a male or a female's clothing.
This can help narrow the field of suspects and lead to a clear culprit or at least a smaller field of possibles. I think it is mostly useful when an agency does not have all four evidence contacts. I don't know whether or not all agencies have them.

Sep-5-2004 05:29

Not all agencies have them. It is dependent on the type of place the agency is in. The smaller ones don't usually have a lab.

Sep-5-2004 08:57

In our agency - we tend to 'store' some cases to work on at leisure. These are ones we have searched the crime scene on and then put in case files. At the end of the day, I'll go to crime lab, and see if any stored cases have evidence I could analyze. Most of my colleagues do the same. It makes moving through cases smoother.
But - if you are totally NOT smart, you need to change into something smart for your skill to work in analyzing evidence.