The Importance of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Laboratory

The Federal Bureau Of Investigations labratory has been around since November 24,1932. Back then it was only a single agent in a single room with some basic equipment. Flash forward to today and it is one the largest and most state of the art facilities in the world. The FBI has 56 field offices throughout the U.S. Their main labratory is located in Quantico, VA. The lab is comprised of five sections each with varying numbers of sub-sections. The provide an array of services anyhting from maintaining a tire tread database to examination of improvised explosive devices (IEDS) from the battlefield in Afghanistan. Many of the units are deployable to anywhere in the world and almost all departments provide courtroom testimony. All departments work with federal , state, local and some inter-national law enforcement organizations. The lab is accredited by the American Society of Crime Labratory Directors/Labratory Accreditation Board. (see attached print out for credentials) The first department and sub-sections we will dicuss is the Biometric Analysis unit. This department is made up of 5 sub-sections. The first of which is the Combined DNA Index System(CODIS). The CODIS unit manages the CODIS system as well as the National DNA Index. The Federal DNA Database Unit makes DNA profiles of federally convicted offenders, offenders facing federal charges as well as non- U.S. citizens held under U.S. authority. In the Latent Print Analysis department they examine finger, foot, and palm prints. The Mitochondrial DNA unit examines biological items of evidence from crime scenes to determine the mitochondrial dna sequence from samples such as hair,bones , and teeth. This unit also maintains the National Missing Person Database. The last unit in this department is the DNA-Nuclear department. The FBI started using data testing in forensics in 1998. The FBI uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Short Tandem Repeat (STR) analysis to detect minute amounts of biological