Metro Police analyst sorts out CSI fact from TV fiction

By Rich Coleman

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

Thanks to some education by Metro Police, fans of crime scene analysis television shows like CSI and NCIS can now scoff at the idea of investigators solving a crime within an hour-long episode.

“Yeah, they can’t solve a case in an hour,” said Marilyn Lieder, who attended a community meeting put on by Metro explaining how crimes are really solved.

Tuesday night, Metro Police command centers held their First Tuesday event for February, an open-house that takes place on the first Tuesday of each month. This month’s topic was aimed at debunking fictional crime scene analysis shows by informing the public about what Metro’s Criminalistics Bureau really does.

While a typical CSI episode has agents collecting and analyzing evidence and then catching a suspect — all within a single episode, including commercials — it often takes hours just to collect evidence at the crime scene and then possibly weeks to analyze.

And that’s assuming there even is good evidence at a crime scene.

“With the popularity of all the shows, I think people have an idea of what goes on. But I think it’s a little bit distorted by time and perception of the fact that there’s always evidence at a crime scene,” said Linda Krueger, executive director of the Criminalistics Bureau. “In reality, there’s not always perfect evidence. You don’t always find fingerprints and DNA, and it doesn’t always answer the question of who committed (the crime).”

Krueger spoke to about 60 people who attended the meeting at Metro’s Northwest Area Command.

Besides dispelling some crime-drama fiction, the event was also important for the public to be better informed if they are ever serving as a member of a jury, police officials said.

“It’s important for them to understand the services we provide and how the Criminalistics Bureau operates...so that they understand when they walk into a jury room and sit in one of those chairs they don’t have the CSI effect,” Krueger said.

The “CSI effect” refers to jury members having higher expectations of forensic science because of what they see on TV.

Though Lieder and her friends at the meeting knew beforehand that shows like CSI weren’t factual, they said it was still good to get a better understanding just how systematic the process is.

“It’s nice to know it’s done so thoroughly,” attendee Irene Bogk said. “Each time something like this happens, you don’t hear about it necessarily in the paper or on TV, but it’s nice you can come to this meeting and see that it is done quite thoroughly.”

Krueger explained to the northwest residents that the Criminalistics Bureau has three main objectives: collect, analyze, and properly store evidence. In Southern Nevada, there are six squads that work 24 hours a day.

Analysts are called to a crime scene if it is deemed necessary by the first-responding officer. They do everything from take photos, analyze blood splatters, collect DNA evidence and reconstruct the actual crime scene.

There are two forensic laboratories in Nevada that specialize in all facets of forensic science: toxicology, chemistry, biology, quality assurance, comparative analysis and latent fingerprint details. The bulk of the work comes to the chemistry department by way of drunk drivers and drug users, Krueger said.

“Impaired drivers and drug addicts are basically our meat and potatoes,” Krueger said. “It accounts for 80 percent of the lab’s workload.”

Lieber, her husband Jerry, and her friends make sure to attend every First Tuesday session at Metro’s Northwest Area Command.

“Every time we come to these meetings, we learn something new. Things we didn’t even know existed,” Jerry Lieber said.