Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Tricked-out truck helping Boulder City detectives

Boulder City CSI truck

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Detective Mark Dubois discusses the ability to carry more equipment and personnel for on-scene investigations with the new mobile CSI unit purchased for the Boulder City Police Department with drug-seizure funds.

Boulder City CSI truck

Detective Mark Dubois stands beside the new mobile CSI unit of the Boulder City Police Department. The truck was purchased with drug-seizure funds. Launch slideshow »

Before this fall, if a dead body was found in the desert, it would take a caravan of Boulder City police vehicles to haul the needed equipment to the scene to gather evidence.

Now detective Mark Dubois can carry all of the equipment he needs and four extra officers across the sensitive desert landscape in one trip.

The Police Department recently added a new four-wheel drive Ford F350 XLT truck to its fleet to replace the much smaller Dodge Durango that had served as the crime scene investigation vehicle. The $46,000 truck, purchased with part of $400,000 of suspected drug money confiscated last year, has been customized for its load with work benches that pull out from the truck bed and air bags under the suspension to carry the extra weight, Dubois said.

"It gives us the ability to take all of our equipment to a scene," Dubois said. "In the past, we would have to send someone back to get equipment that we were not able to take."

From the outside, the truck gives few hints that it is a police vehicle. The tinted windows on the cap obscure the racks of equipment in the back, and the computers and other police equipment normally kept in the front seat are hidden in compartments. For all a passerby knows, there could be fishing poles and tackle in there.

When Dubois turns on the police lights, however, it becomes evident, though in a subtle way. Track lighting along the top and bottom of the truck's back and the taillights flash red and blue, like regular police lights. In the front, one-inch-deep bar lights are tucked into the windshield and grill, becoming visible only when flashing.

"When they're off, people don't even notice you're there," Dubois said. The low profile allows the detectives to remain inconspicuous when driving around town or in Las Vegas, he said.

But when he opens the back of the truck, its special purpose quickly becomes clear.

Racks on wheels hold metal boxes filled with the specialized equipment Dubois needs to gather evidence. Think "CSI," but not nearly as glamorous or with the same, neat endings.

Cameras, casting, fingerprint kits, specially filtered glasses — everything Dubois might need on a crime scene is here. The truck is also tricked out with such extras as charging stations for cell phones and special lighting.

What's different from the vehicles in "CSI" are the fancy labs those investigators go back to and the speed with which they can solve crimes.

"To be able to get DNA back in an hour would be great," Dubois said. "It usually takes six months."

While he enjoys the show for its entertainment, Dubois said, the perception it creates sometimes works against him and other real police departments. He refers to the "CSI effect," where people, even lawyers, expect too much of the evidence.

"We have to correct lawyers in court," he said. "I'll say, 'That might be possible, but our agency doesn't have the ability to do that.'"

As it is, Dubois is happy to be able to pull some of his evidence-gathering equipment out of his lab and carry it in his new truck to the scene of a crime, where he needs it.

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