CLPEX Chat Board

Hi,
I have just completed my BSc Archaeological and forensic sciences in the UK and am now looking to start a career in forensics. Having only just come out of education and just returned from backpacking arond Europe for a couple of months I have only ever had part time seasonal jobs so no real relevant work experience which I am worried could make things a bit difficult.
I completed my dissertation on enhancing latent fingerprints on fruit and really enjoyed using the various techniques and conducting my own comparisons. I was thinking I would like to become a fingerprint expert but then having reached this status would like to move in to Crime Scene Investigations, is this a good move or do most people do it the other way around?
If anyone has any career advice and tips on completing application forms that would be great. One of the questions that alays gets me is membership of professional bodies, I really feel like I should be and that it would make my application stand out more but dont know what to join. I looked at the forensic science society but would need to provide to references of people that are already members.

The Fingerprint Society has an Associate membership that merely requires an interest in the goals of the Society. The application has a place for a member to sign as proposing you for membership, but it's likely a visit with a nearby latent print examiner would find a patron, or even some email correspondence might suffice.

The IAI offers Associate membership for those who do not meet the government employment requirement for Active members.

Both organizations are active and both publish journals and are readily recognized by anyone in the field. I do think that it carries weight on applications. Serious people normally do join their respective professional organizations. It helps show a desire to be an active and learning part of the professional community. The Society's annual conference is in March 2009 in Manchester. I think if I were looking for a job, I would try to attend. I can't think of a better way to both make contacts and validate you as seriously interested.

I can't speak for the UK, but I would say that pretty consistently in the U.S., the path is from crime scene tech to latent print examiner. (I say "tech," because I think the only valid use of "crime scene investigator" implies something that's not very often a job description here.) The other common path here is for an officer to move to latent print examiner. (Note I didn't say move up. ) For the most part here, techs are evidence collectors. Analysts, such a LPE's, normally work in the lab and may only occasionally work in the field. Most U.S. agencies are quite small and do not have dedicated field forensic people, depending on officers to collect evidence and do the actual "investigation." Their forensic knowledge varies with their own training and the agency's policies.

Just out of curiousity, where did you receive your degree? We have an employee who got her degree from Lancashire across the pond.

Hi Charlie,

Congratulations on your degree!!... now for the real work hey?

Here is my advice.....

If you are looking for jobs, there are lots of places on the web, but there are 2 I would recommend:

http://www.policeoracle.com/ and http://www.policeprofessional.com/

these sites are used by a lot of the forces.

Otherwise just visit the websites of all the forces and look for guidance.

NOW HERE IS THE IMPORTANT STUFF...

If you apply for a Fingerprint Officer post first, do not state your intention that you would eventually like to become a CSI, as it takes a force a lot of time and expense to get you to expert status and that would be lost if you then became a CSI.

Anyway... a CSI is a lower paid position than a fingerprint expert (excluding any overtime and allowance payments)... so if you reached fingerprint expert status and then applied for a CSI position, it would result in a massive pay drop... in the region of at least £10,000 pa.

Also if you took that route, it is likely that after 4 years as a CSI you would lose your status as a Fingerprint Expert, unless you were able to prove that you were still competent and gained enough CPD as a fingerprint examiner to stay on the register.

Therefore my advice is (unless you can find a force that still runs a dual role system), to go down the road of becoming a CSI first and then specialise later on. You may find that the role of a fingerprint officer would have morphed by then anyway.... I think police forces are looking to introduce Identification Specialists who would deal with fingerprints, footwear, facial recognition and more.

Good luck on whatever career you decide!

Thank you for your help guys.

I have just sent of an application for a crime scene investigator poisiton with Manchester police. I think what i want do do is get a good break ground in crime scene investigations and either get to a position where i can take a supervisory role at major incidents or move on to specialise in fingerprint examinations.

I have been shortlisted to go for an assessment for a fingerprint assistant position next week,

Does anyone know what this assessment night involve?
Will it just be one of those simple maths and english tests that some companies use and observe how i interact with people or will they actually ask me to try and classify some fingerprints??

If anyone has been to something like this before and has any advice that would be great.

Cheers.