Page 47 - Aug Sept 2016

A Personal and Indepth Interview with Dennis Hillard
Sonya Trippett: Many people think that crime labs are setup like the television

shows i.e CSI, NCIS etc. But this is far from true. Please describe how a crime lab
is setup and how the forensic analyst receives the evidence from crime scenes to

process.

Dennis Hilliard: In talks I present to many groups, I include the pictures of the ac-
tors from the popular CSI/NCIS shows and I explain that my favorite character is
Abby Sciuto because she is the total forensic scientist, who “can do it all”. I explain

that a person like Abby does not exist in today’s forensic lab; also I let them know
that the ladies in my lab do not wear high heels and leather skirts and we do not

carry guns and rarely are we asked to help with the processing of a crime scene.
There are four sections to the Laboratory: Administration which includes myself
and the Quality Officer who assists in maintaining our accreditation under ISO/IEC

17025; Latent Prints which has two examiners; Trace Analysis which has two ex-
aminers; and Firearms and Tool Marks which has three examiners.

Evidence is submitted to the Laboratory by state and local law enforcement agen-
cies which include 38 local police departments, State Police and State Fire Marshal.
On occasion we receive requests from federal agencies or from neighboring states

as a mutual aid request. We have requested assistance, at times, from neighboring
states.

The Laboratory has a computerized Laboratory Information Management System
(LIMS), which is used to track evidence in the Laboratory through a bar coding sys-
tem. This system also alerts analysts to cases assigned to their section, to create case

analysis reports and to create statistical reports on the number of cases and items
the Laboratory receives and characterize how many cases and items each agencies

submits and the types of cases submitted. Quarterly progress reports are generated
from this data and the reports are provided to the State Crime Laboratory Commis-
sion that oversees the Laboratory under state law: http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/

Statutes/TITLE12/12-1.1/INDEX.HTM.

Sonya Trippett: You have many years of working with the analysis of evidence,
hair and fiber analysis and more. Please talk about your experience with providing

court testimony about fire and debris analysis. What are some of the challenges that
you have faced when providing your expert testimony in court?

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