Page 52 - Aug Sept 2016

A Personal and Indepth Interview with Dennis Hillard
The advice I give to students both at the university and in high schools is that they

need to determine where they would like to work in the forensic field. If they want
to actively investigate crime scenes, they need to consider becoming a police officer

if they intend to stay in the northeastern states. If they want to work in a laboratory,
they need a B.S. degree in a natural science, but not necessarily in a forensic sci-
ence program. I advise them to make certain that the college or university that they

attend has a solid chemistry program with teaching labs that have modern instru-
ments for determining the chemical make-up of compounds. With a degree in chem-

istry, biochemistry or biology, they broaden the field that they can be employed in,
if they cannot attain a position in the forensic field. An advanced degree, especially
in Forensic Science would boost their chances of obtaining a position in the forensic

field. The areas that have the most openings would be in DNA technology and com-
puter forensics.

Sonya Trippett: During your career, where do you feel you have made the most

impact? Did your influence promote significant change with the people and/or with-
in the organization that you were working for?

Dennis Hilliard: I feel that where I have had the most impact was in the training

program for law enforcement officer who are or will become the crime scene inves-
tigators for their departments. Each year since 1992, I have coordinated this pro-

gram which instructs law enforcement officers mostly from Rhode Island, but also
from southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut in the basics of process-
ing crime scenes and the collection and preservation of evidence. Once the inves-

tigators understand this process and know what can be done with the physical evi-
dence that they collect by the laboratory process, they become better investigators.

This leads to the submission of additional to the laboratory.
In 1999 this led to the laboratory employing a full-time latent print examiner be-
cause of additional submissions to the laboratory. Over the next five years, I was

able to add a second firearms examiner, a second latent print examiner and a second
trace examiner. In 2003 we began the process of preparing for laboratory accredi-

tation under the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for forensic laboratories. Federal grants
were used in the process of not only obtaining accreditation for the state crime
laboratory but also for the forensic laboratories at the RI Department of Health. The

state crime laboratory employed a part time quality officer and obtained full accred-
itation in 2007. We continue to maintain our accreditation with the assistance of

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