Mesa Police Department Forensic Services
Goal
It is the goal of the
Forensic Services Section to provide, within its
capability, high quality forensic science
services to the City of Mesa.
Objectives
·
Maintain high levels of quality
examinations/analyses in the areas of Biology (DNA
and Serology), Controlled Substances, Toxicology
(Urine Drug Screening and Blood Alcohol), Firearms/Tool
mark/Impressions,
Fingerprint Identification, Latent Prints, and Crime
Scenes.
·
Provide
technical assistance and case documentation at crime
scenes.
·
Maintain databases of relevant information including
the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS),
National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN)
and COmbined DNA Index System (CODIS.)
·
Provide
training for police personnel and technical
assistance for the field drug testing and driving
under the influence (DUI) preliminary breath test
programs.
News
The Forensic Services Section recently used grant
funds to purchase digital camera kits for the Crime
Scene Unit, microscopes, and a
FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed spectrometer). The Controlled Substances
unit uses the FTIR and microscopes to identify
controlled substances. The
Full-Service
Crime Lab Grant is only available to accredited
Crime Labs, like Mesa PD's Forensic Services Section, and
is administered by the Arizona Criminal Justice
Commission.
Three members of the Crime Scene Unit received
level one crime scene certification from the
International Association for Identification.
This brings the number of certified Crime Scene
Specialists to six.
The Biology Unit of the Forensic Services Unit has
been awarded two grants involving DNA Analysis.
The first grant is the DNA backlog
reduction/capacity enhancement grant from the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The grant
funds will be used to purchase an automated
instrument to process DNA samples quicker and an
interface from the DNA instruments to the Laboratory
Information Management System for direct import of
the instrument results into the database.
The second grant is the Solving Cold Cases with DNA
grant, also from the NIJ. This multiple unit
grant incorporates the Biology Unit, the Sex Crimes
Unit, and the Homicide Unit. The funds will be used
to identify, review, and investigate violent crime
cold cases that have the potential to be solved
through DNA analysis, and to locate and analyze
biological evidence associated with these cases. The
grant funds will be used for overtime to process
these cases, travel to follow up on any CODIS hits
associated with these cases, and laboratory
instrumentation that assists in processing these
cases--including an automated microscope system that
will assist analyzing samples from sexual assault
kits.
Units
Administrative Support
Biology (DNA)
Controlled Substances
Crime Scene
Fingerprint Identification (AFIS)
Firearms
Latent Print
Photo Lab
Quality Assurance
Toxicology
Volunteer Crime Scene
Employment
Links to job descriptions and employment related
information
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Forensic Links
These sites contain a wealth of information if you are
interested in this field as a career.
News
Archived news items
Contact
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