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Crime Fighters; TV Shows Fuel Interest in Working in Crime Labs, but It's Not All That Sexy

Posted on: Monday, 13 June 2005, 09:00 CDT

By DIANA SCHOBERG In the television hit "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," Gil Grissom can find a dead body, test blood spatters and solve the mystery neat and tidy in less than an hour.

"CSI" is not quite reality TV.

Investigators usually take a bit longer to figure out the bad guy. A fingerprint takes around a day to process and DNA samples can take three days. It's just not that sexy. "Most people who work in crime labs don't go out to the crime scene, don't arrest people and don't shoot people," said Michael Haas, registrar of the American Board of Criminalistics and the director of Wisconsin's state crime lab. "That's more traditional police officer things to do."

Kevin Kosiorek, a criminalist in the Boston Police Crime Laboratory Unit, spends most of his days in the lab. For four years, he processed the evidence from sexual assaults for the city of Boston. He analyzed swabs in rape kits and looked at physical evidence for semen, saliva and blood.

Kosiorek also goes to crime scenes; it's his favorite part of the job. At the scene, he documents evidence, draws a sketch, and then collects the evidence and examines it. He hunts for evidence such as impressions from shoes or tires, or stray hairs and fibers. "There's a lot of paperwork involved, that's what you don't see on TV," Kosiorek said. "Just to look at one item of evidence you may have to fill out three forms."

One of the biggest differences between work in a crime lab and work in any other science lab is that instead of defending your work to your supervisor, you have to defend it in court, sometimes under intense questioning from defense attorneys.

"Some people can't do that," Hass said. "They make for good scientists or good workers in the lab but can't take the pressure."

As a biology student at Providence College, Kosiorek interned at the Boston crime lab. He kept in touch and was hired shortly after he graduated. A few others at the crime lab have a master's degree in forensic science, he said.

Suffolk University in Boston offers a degree in biochemistry with a forensic science concentration. The program has been offered for three years. Twelve of the biochemistry department's 52 current students chose the forensic science focus, according to Dr. Doris Lewis, the concentration's coordinator.

Lewis, who has been teaching in the department for 25 years, said she's seen a definite increase in students interested in forensic science recently.

"This is a phenomenon I haven't really encountered before," she said. "I get inquiries from all over the world. Some of them do specifically mention the television show."

Much of a criminalist's training is on the job. Kosiorek has been to the FBI academy, and last summer the crime lab brought in a blood spatter expert for an 80-hour workshop.

The job field is very competitive. Haas of the American Board of Criminalistics said that he receives more than 100 applications for every open position at the crime lab that he directs.

"The thing with a chemistry or microbiology degree is you can work somewhere else if you don't get into a crime lab," Haas said. "You need something to fall back on."

Television shows like "CSI" have made the field even more popular, Hass said. He has seen a jump in the number of calls the American Board of Criminalistics gets, from students as young as grade school age, planning their studies.

"The biggest problem we see is a misunderstanding of what a crime lab analyst does," he said.

MORE INFO

ONLINE:

American Academy of Forensic Scientists at aafs.org; Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists at neafs.org.

SALARY: Experienced criminalists typically earn about $50,000 a year. Federal salaries are usually higher. BASICS:

Landing a job as a crime lab analyst usually requires a bachelor's degree in a lab science, preferably chemistry or microbiology.

Diana Schoberg may be reached at dschoberg@ledger.com.

Source: Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.

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