Major Christian Quinn, Commander of the Cyber and Forensics Bureau, discusses advantages of having the Mobile Forensic Lab on the crime scene. Photo courtesy FCPD
The Fairfax County Police Department’s Mobile Forensic Lab was debuted by Major Christian Quinn, Commander of the Cyber and Forensics Bureau. The mobile lab is a state-of-the-art vehicle that brings forensic capabilities previously only available in a lab environment to actual crime scenes.
To date, the lab has been deployed to four crime scenes – each of them a homicide case. Evidence recovered at those scenes included firearms, blood, and electronics. The lab allowed for those items to be examined and preserved immediately, which expedited the ability of detectives to forensically link suspects with the scene.
The advantage of bringing tools from the lab environment to crime scenes can’t be overstated. Major Quinn noted that Fairfax County is a very safe place with relatively low instances of serious crime. But tragic cases do occur and the Cyber and Forensics bureau is pleased to now be able to leverage the best tools and technology available to serve Fairfax County.
“Forensic Science speaks for homicide victims who can’t tell their story. It corroborates information from marginalized community members when an imperfect society doesn’t believe them. And sometimes it gives families and victims closure after more than 20 years when new technology and methods emerge to solve crimes today that we couldn’t solve when they were first investigated,” said Quinn.