A top forensic specialist has praised the work of her team after they appeared in a new BBC documentary following their investigations.
Last year, a camera crew followed a team of crime scene investigators from Northumbria Police ’s Forensics Department as they sought to create a true-to-life crime series which captured the twists and turns of major crime investigations and reflected the challenges of modern day policing.
The three-part series ‘Forensics: The Real CSI,’ captures the twists and turns of a major crime investigation and the role forensic investigators play.
Each of the three episodes will follow a crime from the moment of call-out, showing how CSIs gather and assess evidence and how they work closely with detectives.
Following the first episode on Wednesday, Scientific Support Operations Manager Kirsty Potter praised the team for their work both on and off the camera.
She said: “This is what we do day in day out. We wanted the programme to show people what we do every single day and make them aware how hard we try, how persistent we have to be and the difficulties we can face.
“People don’t always realise that everything leaves a trace – fibres, DNA and our job is to find that. Forensics alone can’t solve a crime but it can link a person or an object to that crime which can be essential for the investigations led by our officers. If someone did something, we will try our best to find evidence of that one way or another – that’s the power of forensics.
“Sometimes we don’t always get what we are looking for straight away, it could take time and a lot of processes. Sometimes we get a quick hit, and sometimes we don’t get a result at all despite our best efforts, you just never know what will happen. Forensics can come with a lot of limitations; we are ultimately searching for things which we don’t know are there.”
With 23 years of experience in forensics, Kirsty, who is responsible for the force’s CSI’s, Fingerprint Bureau and Footwear Unit features in episodes two and three, but insisted the reason she was happy to invite the cameras in was to highlight the ‘incredible’ work of her team.
The former forensic biologist added: “I am really pleased with the programme, it’s an excellent opportunity to see what we do on a daily basis, to see the hard work and commitment of the CSIs.
“They are an amazing team and the reason we wanted to take part in this documentary was to show that.”
Anyone interested in a career with the police can find information on the Northumbria Police website at www.northumbria.police.uk .
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