Content area
Full text
Mobile crime labs allow evidence processing on scene and more
Following in the tire tracks of command centers, SWAT trucks, EOD vehicles and DUI vehicles, mobile crime laboratories have been the last large crime-fighting vehicles to grow in popularity and mature.
"We're seeing the beginning of vehicles becoming more sophisticated," says LDV Sales Development Manager Larry LaGuardia, naming video conferencing and satellite phones as examples of sophistication. "And they're more multipurpose." Commonly mobile labs are geared toward the investigation of homicide scenes, meth labs and other crime scenes; as well as arson investigation and blood alcohol testing. Homeland security is another reason law enforcement agencies purchase mobile crime labs.
The key advantage of mobile labs is that when extensive processing and analysis needs to be done at the scene, crime scene technicians and analysts can drive a mobile laboratory right up to the perimeter of the crime scene and get to work.
NACS-Vehicles President Brian Dekle says it's not uncommon for law enforcement agencies serving an area with 150,000 or more residents to have a larger crime scene vehicle, but most often their purpose is to help collect evidence.
Few agencies have vehicles to analyze evidence. Mobile crime labs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, he says, but what's inside a vehicle is more important than vehicle size. What's inside a vehicle - equipment for evidence analysis and storage - can be expensive. Dekle says these costs determine what a mobile crime lab will ultimately look like.
Most mobile crime labs include equipment to analyze chemicals, special hoods for fume disposal, isolated boxes for hazardous material analysis, and supplies for crime scene investigation, according to LDV.
The difference between designing a communications vehicle and a crime lab is huge, Dekle says, because everything that's done on the scene is going to impact the outcome of a case later on.
...