Hi all,
Hope you are all aware (seems like most of you are) that the CSI shows portray scientific investigators who rarely exist in real life ... and, in my humble opinion, shouldn't. I say that from the standpoint of having worked and taught CSI for the past 38 years ... and as a fiction writer recently hired by PocketBooks to continue the series of short novels based on the CSI-Las Vegas show.
Why the word 'shouldn't'? Well, it's mostly an issue of conflict-of-interest and the premise that investigators really shouldn't conduct forensic examinations on their own evidence and thereby scientifically confirm their own theories re a case ... mostly because they were biased by their presence at the scene and interactions (if any) with the suspects. This applies primary to sworn law enforcement investigators with arrest authority to investigate crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, etc.; but it also applies to CSIs who confront and interrogate suspects. Fortunately, there are very few CSIs today with arrest authority who are also forensic scientists. I was one such individual (ie: dinosaur) from 1968-1972, but I never actually arrested anyone, never interrogated anyone, tried to avoid the suspects whenever possible, and tried not to conduct forensic examinations on the evidence I collected at a crime scene. In point of fact, the suspect was pretty much the last person I wanted to see at a crime scene.
As I gather many of you are aware, CSI is mostly a lot of hard work ... going from scene to scene (you might work 8-10 burglary scenes during one shift) ... rarely --- if ever --- interpreting the evidence ... and only occasionally hearing how the examination of the evidence and the hunt for the suspect worked out.
Several years ago, when I started in this business, routine (ie: burglary) scenes were mostly worked by uniformed/sworn CSI officers, and the complex scenes were usually worked by criminalists and ID techs. Only the big departments had civilians devoted to CSI. Now most departments have civilian CSIs (they're a lot cheaper than sworn officers and criminalists) to work the scenes and collect the evidence ... which they turn over to the detectives or (preferably) drop off directly to the crime lab where criminalists examine and interpret the evidence, and hand their lab reports to the criminal investigators (detectives) who hunt down the suspects. The CSIs don't hang around the lab because they have other CSI calls holding. All in all, working CSI is nowhere near as exciting as the CSI shows; but its a useful and necessary job none-the-less.
Now, having said all of that, I should also say that my intention is to add a little extra CSI reality to these short novels for PocketBooks while maintaining the entertaining aspects of the characters and their interactions with the suspects. The actors are great, the shows are entertaining, and who am I to mess with their amusements?
Hope I haven't discouraged anyone who really wants to work in CSI. It is a challenging and interesting job, but if you're expecting the work to be 'exciting' or 'glamorous,' you're likely to be disappointed.
