Insider Info

"They laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a police officer in high school," says Janis Ford, "because I'm not that big, and I have this little voice."

If her classmates could see her now, they wouldn't be laughing. Ford has realized her dream of becoming a police officer. She is one of two women on the criminal investigative unit in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The crime scene investigators are responsible for getting quickly to the scene and photographing and collecting evidence. They analyze the evidence (either by themselves or by sending it off to a lab), and on occasion testify in court.

"It's like trying to solve a puzzle," Ford says. "You take all the pieces of the puzzle -- the bits of evidence -- and figure out how they all fit together. It's fun to figure out what they touched, where they exited.

"Of course, you see terrible atrocities. I wouldn't recommend this job to anyone who is even a little bit squeamish." She says that you may see a horrifying crime scene, but you must be coherent enough to function and try to catch the people that did it.

Cpl. Tracy Ramsey is a crime scene specialist. "The variety in the work is the main reason why I love this job, although some of it is hard. We do it all," she says.

"If we are called to a crime scene, we look for evidence. Then it's our responsibility to direct that to a crime lab or work with it ourselves. If positive identification is made, I will give the expert evidence on that in court."

There are many ways to catch a thief, whether it's fingerprints, footprints, DNA or blood, she says. "Sometimes," according to Ramsey, "you may find a piece of tape or tinfoil on a package that contains suspected drugs. Then we locate a residence with [the] tape end or the matching tinfoil roll in someone's home."

Sgt. David Grady is in charge of a bureau of criminal identification. Grady shares Ford and Ramsey's enthusiasm for the job. "It's always different," he says. "No two crime sciences are alike. People end up becoming specialized in different aspects of the job. I like fingerprinting."

Ford would recommend this job to students who enjoy science and solving problems. "It's exciting seeing a criminal get convicted for a crime that you helped nail them for, by matching their fingerprints and testifying in court and having that be the reason they get sent away for 25 years. It's very satisfying," she says.

Ramsey thinks the criminals are getting smarter and striving through technology to be one step ahead. She recommends that you educate yourself.

Grady tells students to stay in school. "The more science you know, the more credible your story will be when you are testifying in court."

Grady also recommends brushing up on your basic photography skills. You also need to know how to use digital photo programs on the computer.

"Math is used," he says, "but mostly angles, and a formula used to figure out the classifications, which are important. We check fingerprints against those already on file, because five to eight percent of people arrested will give a phony name."

Using the Henry classification system, the arrested person not only gives their fingerprints, but also gets prints taken of the sides and the palms of the hand. "The whole hand has identifying ridges," says Grady.

He is constantly coming up with new ways to get fingerprints. One of the main ingredients in successfully finding prints on evidence is strong glue, which is applied to the evidence, then placed in a vacuum-like tube, making the fingerprints adhere to the evidence.

"I was lucky. I became a police officer when I was 21 years old, and I liked that. But after a while I started talking to one of the guys on the [criminal investigative unit] and it sounded like something I would like. It's the type of job where you wait until there is an opening," Ford says.

"It has a good future, too. After you move on, you can work for a lawyer."

Ford says it takes three years just to become comfortable with classifying fingerprints.

Ramsey says that her profession impacts a lot of people. "We deal with victims of crime. Although it may not have a global impact, it does impact the victims of the crime," she says. "I'm rewarded when I obtain physical evidence that successfully concludes an investigation."