For Tim French, being in the know about local crime is a rush. "Most of
the stuff that goes on in the news has to do with what I do here," he says.
"So, you're kind of on the cutting edge of most of the news that happens in
whatever city you're in."
French has been working in forensic labs since he was in college. When
he started, he thought he'd end up in the genetics field. Once in the lab,
he found himself looking at blood instead of genes. It was an unexpected turn
of events that worked out for the best.
"The college I was going to in New York actually had a criminal justice
minor program and I thought, 'Well, what do I want to learn about criminals
for?' I never even took any classes. And now I'm working in the field and
I love it. It's great!"
French had just the right training for the job. "I took biology and I had
a minor in chemistry. Most of the labs in the country will require either
a chemistry degree or a natural science degree with a certain amount of hours
in chemistry," he explains.
In high-crime areas, a lack of DNA analysts means that a lot of cases are
left untouched. Samples sit untested, and criminal cases are put on hold.
French realized that there was a need for people who could look at these
backlogged cases. "There was an opening in the lab where I was working, and
they were short a few analysts. I happened to see an article in the paper
about the backlog of cases that were going to happen because of that," recalls
French.
Occasionally, French's work takes him out of the lab and onto the scene
of a crime. "I was actually on the homicide team, and I used to go to every
homicide," he says.
French says the details of a crime scene provide analysts with lots of
important practical information. "It helps us to weed out which samples to
test and which ones not to test," he says. "Because we've got such a large
backlog of cases, we've got to pare them down. You need to know where contact
took place between people. You want to know what was worn, what the carpet
type was and where you should look. Concentrate your efforts."
Nicole McCullough is part of a new system in her workplace. In her lab,
only the initial stage of sample processing takes place.
"It will be sent initially for extraction here, and then it moves along
the system, because we're now working on a national DNA system in which all
labs partake," she says. "It will leave this lab and go to another lab for
analysis, and the facts will be sent back to us via computer."
Like French, McCullough needs to be familiar with the details of the criminal
investigation. "What we basically do, in general terms, is greet the investigator
to find out what's involved with the case," she says. "We'll screen exhibit
material for the presence of body fluids. If those body fluids are found,
they're basically cut out and sent along for DNA analysis."
DNA technology is big news for criminal investigators. Sometimes it will
bring a case to an undeniable conclusion. McCullough says, however, that DNA
technology does not necessarily make evidence stronger.
"It depends," she says. "If it's the only evidence, sometimes [DNA] is
good evidence. But it's not the only evidence that could be found. For example,
there could be fibers [or] paint, depending on what type of case we're dealing
with."
When physical evidence first comes to the lab, nobody is sure what to expect.
A piece of stained carpet could turn up all kinds of clues. Then again, it
could reveal nothing more than cat hair and spilled wine. It is precisely
this mystery that makes lab work so interesting for McCullough.
"You just never know what you're looking at sometimes," she says. "You
have no way of knowing what type of exhibits [you'll look at]. There are various
exhibits of interest."