A look inside high-tech forensics lab in regional Victoria

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Victoria police has granted the ABC rare access to its high-tech, top-secret forensics lab in Ballarat -- as the facility marks five years of crime fighting.

Transcript

00:00 Under the glow of fluorescent lights inside the Ballarat forensic hub, Anja is looking

00:07 for clues on this large kitchen knife.

00:10 We will put in cyanacrylate, which is commonly known as super glue. We'll heat that super

00:15 glue up, that will form a vapour.

00:18 A smattering of fingerprints is revealed, potential evidence that would be fed back

00:22 to detectives quickly.

00:25 A few labs down, Danny and Hung are being kept busy with drug samples.

00:29 We have another one there, yeah with the white powder. So we're going to have to examine

00:34 those.

00:36 The work of these unsworn officers is allowing those on the front line across the Western

00:41 region to get results from crime scenes faster, removing the need for time-consuming travel

00:46 to Melbourne.

00:48 So essentially the quicker we can provide forensic evidence, the quicker it can help

00:52 police investigators to find persons of interest and solve crimes.

00:56 And the demand is high. Since opening in 2019, the hub has processed over 12,000 items, which

01:03 equates to almost seven pieces of potential evidence being processed each day. And police

01:08 say they save 23 hours a month from when they had to travel to the lab in Melbourne, hours

01:14 that can be devoted to police work.

01:17 The results are promising.

01:19 A recent example we had here at the hub was some cable ties and cords that were submitted.

01:24 They were submitted in relation to a kidnapping. We initially thought that the items were only

01:29 suitable for biological evidence. However, the forensic officer, once they got the items

01:34 open, realised that they were also suitable for fingerprint analysis. This meant that

01:38 they could treat it and actually developed a fingerprint that matched the person of interest

01:42 in the case.

01:44 Once items are tested by staff here at the hub, they're stored on site or at a police

01:49 station. When the results are in, they're either used for future court cases or if they're

01:53 not useful to police, they're safely destroyed.

01:57 It's a high-tech business and the forensic techniques available continue to develop,

02:01 but the staff at the hub say the reality is still a little different to what you see on

02:06 TV.

02:07 A lot of people think that we can produce results overnight. It does take a little bit

02:11 of time. So yeah, we're not as fast as CSI.

02:15 Myth-busting and helping solve crime, all in a day's work for this team.

02:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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