Police unveil mobile CSI wagon

The Forensic Science Service (FSS) has developed a mobile laboratory which will travel to crime scenes and carry out real-time forensic investigation and analysis.

Five police forces - Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands - are piloting the Forensic Response Vehicle (FRV) this summer, with results expected in the autumn.

The FSS - an executive agency of the Home Office - said by providing immediate access to forensic services the FRV will deliver vital intelligence on suspects and witnesses much faster than processed evidence at a separate laboratory.

DNA samples can be analysed and checked against the national DNA database, delivering a match report back in around eight hours - three times faster than the current turnaround.

Footwear and fingerprint evidence can be captured digitally (or by casts or lifted from the scene) and analysed in the van, while satellite links allow these details to be checked against other databases with rapid results sent back to police at the scene.

The van will also have electronic forensic science facilities, such as on-board access and retrieval of data on mobile phones.

Lincolnshire police chief constable Tony Lake told silicon.com: "Inside the van are a variety of analytical facilities so that you can start work on examining the scene of a crime very quickly. The real advantage is you start work straight away rather than collect the evidence and drive [back]. It means you can quickly identify suspects."

FSS worked with BT to design the mobile laboratories. Each van is equipped with a local area network for connection to the FSS network, enabling rapid forensic database interrogation via a BT Media and Broadcast satellite.