Real CSI lacks TV glamour

The popularity of the TV show CSI has made forensics glamorous, but the day-to-day reality is very different from the Hollywood version, says scene of crime officer Jason Smith.

Mr Smith, 35, is one of three non-sworn members in a seven-person forensics team based at the North Shore policing centre.

He has been in forensics since 1999, working both in Britain and New Zealand. He has been on the North Shore for about two months after five years in Counties Manukau.

He says the TV show based on crime scene investigations has greatly increased the public profile of forensics.

"CSI wasn't on TV when I started. Now there is so much interest in this work, you need a triple degree just to get in the door."

It's what they call the 'CSI factor', he says, when people expect real forensics to be like it is on television. He says it's not only the interest in the job that the TV show is responsible for, but the justice system's raised expectations.

"They expect you to get fingerprints off everything, even in a dusty, dirty place. Even a judge has said: 'I saw it on CSI. Why can't you do it?'"

He admits he has watched the show but says it unrealistically shows homicides solved within the hour.

"In reality it takes weeks."

Mr Smith says when a serious crime occurs police 'freeze the scene' until fingerprints and other evidence is gathered.

"When we first enter a scene we look at the floor for shoeprints, then powder for fingerprints, get DNA from blood and take photos."

Fingerprints can be taken from any smooth or shiny surface like drinking glasses, and preferably ones not handled a lot.

"Not door handles, they are touched by everyone."

The team may also take clothing samples or a portion of a rug to analyse. The DNA is sent to Environmental Science and Research for testing and Auckland central police receive the fingerprints where the unique loops, whorls and arches of each can be analysed.

If fingerprints get a 'hit', meaning those taken from a scene match someone in the fingerprint database, Mr Smith is notified.

Although his work is mostly behind the scenes, Mr Smith says he is often called to testify in court about the collection of evidence, which can put him at risk, facing the offenders he will help put behind bars.

He says it is quiet on the North Shore compared to the past five years he spent in south Auckland.

On the North Shore there's an average of one aggravated robbery a week compared to two a day in Manukau.

About three stolen cars are recovered each week, compared to 30 on an average weekend in south Auckland.

But it has been personally satisfying he says, recalling the case of a Birkenhead house burglary where among other things, a woman's camera was stolen with all of her photos from a holiday in Fiji.

"She broke down, I talked to her, reassured her. A week later she rang and thanked me. That was a good thing."

- © Fairfax NZ News