Forensic science, Real crime scene investigation at the State Police lab
By David McLaughlin/Daily News correspondent
MetroWest Daily News (MA)
February 11, 2007
FRAMINGHAM - Listening to Carl Selavka for a few minutes makes clear the awesome power scientists at the state police crime lab have at their disposal to learn hidden truths about people.
With help from a $290,000 scanning electron microscope, they can detect less than a nanoliter of gasoline as part of an arson investigation. The difference between nylon and wool fibers? No problem.
They can even go further to tell investigators whether the nylon fiber came from a car's floor mats, for example, or its ceiling.
"If you spit on the floor, I can dab up the spit and tell you what's in your bloodstream today," Selavka said. "If you happen to urinate in the corner, good enough for me, even if it dries. I can still find what was in your urine that day."
Selavka, director of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory System, spoke yesterday at Temple Beth Am, providing an inside look into the state's forensic science work. The Brother of Beth Am sponsored the slide show as part of its monthly speaker series.
The lab system, made up of central labs in Sudbury and Maynard, plus four satellite labs, has a staff of 87 scientists. Last year, its caseload was 12,000 cases, representing 50,000 pieces of evidence and involving 1.4 million tests.
Selavka stressed the work of the lab is nothing like what is presented on TV shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," where the work of solving a crime through science is done quickly and usually by one person.
"At crime scenes, unlike on CSI, one specific person does not (start) at the beginning of the show and then 48 minutes later has done all the work to solve that crime," he said.
A typical nonfatal beating, he said, may involve 15 people, from first-responders to forensic scientists.
While DNA testing may garner the most public attention thanks to police dramas on television, DNA work represents just a part of the lab's work. The DNA unit does about four cases a month, Selavka said, while the drug team, for example, juggle more than 1,000 cases a year.
The lab is facing a DNA testing backlog of 2,000 cases, and Selavka called for expanding the capacity of the lab with more staff and new technology.
Despite the backlog of DNA testing, Selavka said district attorneys in the state are not hampered in prosecuting cases. DNA evidence, he said, may require less evidence, but it does not solve crimes.
"I hope you're not disappointed that DNA is actually not everything," he said. "DNA is not only not everything, it's not lots of things."
Next month's guest speaker at Temple Beth Am will be the director of the comedy film "Just Your Average Arab," which was filmed in Framingham.