Forensic Analyists

Roles and Responsibilities

Forensic analysts do not come out to the scene if a crime is committed their job role is carried out within a special laboratory. When a crime has occurred evidence is collected from the crime scene by Scene of Crime Officers which is than bagged and labelled correctly and put in to the chain of custody. It is than sent of the the forensic evidence laboratories where forensic scientists and analysts can evaluate the evidence. It is their responsibility to classify the evidence that is brought in to their laboratory. A forensic analyst/scientist will perform tests on the evidence that has been lifted from the crime scene this could include evidence such as:

• Hair
• Fibers
• Knives
• Guns
• Clothing
• Blood
• Saliva
• Fingerprints
• Semen
• Footprints

Every piece of evidence that is taken from the scene needs to be handles carefully to prevent any damage to the evidence which could prevent further investigation in to what could be a critical piece to the crime. When tests are performed on a piece of evidence all results are recorded and documented for later use. The forensic analyst will than write a report of their findings from carrying out tests on the evidence which will than be read by officers on the case in order to know whether to go further with their evidence. 

O.J. Simpson Case

Within the O.J.Simpson case quite a lot of evidence that was taken from the crime scene was not entered in to the chain of custody and therefore could not be used for further investigation as there were hours of undocumented evidence and therefore had to be classed as missing for long periods of time which could have lead to potential contamination or planting of evidence. 

Blood was also taken from O.J.Simpson so that it could be compared to blood that was found at the crime scene. However when this blood was taken from him, the correct labels were not used by the Los Angeles Police Department and therefore the amount of blood taken was not documented. The vial of blood was also not put in to the chain of custody until hours after the blood was taken from Simpson.  Yet, due to the incorrect labels used the blood could not be reported as missing blood because there was not record of how much blood was taken. This brought up suspicion that officers had used the vial of blood to plant Simpsons blood on crucial evidence from the scene and place his blood at the scene itself.