The C.s.i. Syndrome?

I guess everybody in the western viewing world has seen C.S.I. [Crime Scene Investigations].  A police show made and released through CBS productions, Momentum pictures, Alliance Atlantis and Jerry Bruckheimer television.   Both myself and my partner are huge fans and we have several box sets of DVDs in pride of place on our shelves.  The shows are broken down into C.S.I Las Vegas, C.S.I. Miami and C.S.I New York [the original being C.S.I. Las Vegas].

In my opinion the shows are slick well produced and polished entertainment.  Just for the record the premise of the shows are solving crimes, using the very latest state of the art forensic techniques.  There are too many techniques to list, however they include D.N.A. matching, finger print matching, ballistics matching, fibre tracing and matching, paint analysis and matching, autopsies, chemical analysis, also the use of insects to date a dead bodies time of death etc.

The techniques are staggering in their cleverness and mind blowingly futuristic for the average person to comprehend.  The show always results in the the killer or terrorist being caught.

There is a known phenomenon or syndrome which is acknowledged by real law enforcement agencies called the “C.S.I. Syndrome.” A lot of people genuinely believe these state of the art forensics are used in every single murder case or serious crime committed.  There is a statement in writing in the shows, along the lines of the techniques shown maybe speed-ed up, or it maybe a technique which is just off the drawing board, and will be in use in the near future?  The show has an hour long format so in their defence the forensic techniques would need to appear shorter in time to fit the shows.

The C.S.I. laboratories are pristine and made up of all glass walls and polished floors, all the investigation techniques are housed in the one laboratory! I’ve seen an interview with American and British police chiefs who state when they are called out to say a car theft, the general public expect the full C.S.I. treatment.   The harsh reality is the police will most likely not turn up at all, they will merely log the call for their figures, issue you with a crime No and add you car registration details to the stolen car register.  There will be no flashing blue lights, no jeep will turn up and white clad investigators sporting lovely sun tans and deep cleavage, will jump to your aid!  Police departments are funded through your taxes, they like every other agency have a budget and limited resources.

Some murder investigations never receive any forensic investigation at all, just good old fashioned police work, knocking on doors and asking questions.  I’ll give a true example of the reality of police work in my area.  One Sunday night last year my house was burgled, we were asleep and didn’t hear a thing.  I only noticed we had been burgled because the lead flashing was missing from the roof of my house! [the lead is sold to scrap dealers who sell it to China their appetite for metals is enormous] one of my out buildings had been broken into the door kicked off its hinges and all the guttering ripped down in the process of removing the lead from my roof.

We reported the crime to the police and informed them of a partial foot print on the damaged door.  I was informed of the crime wave in my area [which we were well aware of!] they were sending an investigation team out as the crimes were reaching huge proportions, whole street were being striped of their lead and metal door knockers.

Three hours later a rather rusty battered ford Transit van turned up, no flashing lights no shiny jeep, out stepped a middle aged rather over weight policeman with a tool bag.  He introduced himself as being from the forensic department wow i thought C.S.I. does exist!  He looked at the broken door and said and I quote ”That’s just a partial footprint and its just a training shoe”  I reminded the officer that we had said it was a partial foot print in our phone conversation.  I further advised the officer that we had not touched the door or the broken guttering so if he needed to take finger prints they would not be confused with ours.  He said I quote “Finger prints! what would I look for them for?  They have only stolen the lead off your roof, you must watch too much T.V. sir!”

Now in the T.V. C.S.I. an image of the partial trainer would be relayed by mobile phone to the lab and in less than 2 minutes, the make of the shoe the shoe size and where it was sold would be known! In reality the officer asked me “Would you like a leaflet on being a victim of crime?” I replied no thank you.  Some weeks later I had all four tyres on my car slashed, I called the police again and they advised me had I considered moving to a nicer area?

I will be the first to admit these are not serious crimes by any stretch of the imagination.  However even murders do not usually get the forensic testing as seen on C.S.I. the testing techniques are not that advanced in reality and the costs of the forensic testing is very high.  I can hear you now shouting at my article intimating that I must be stupid to believe a T.V. show, the truth is I am grounded in reality I am aware that the forensic test are rarely used and are no where near as quick as portrayed on C.S.I.  There is however a large proportion of the population that truly believe these marvels of science are carried out for every crime that’s committed.