Crime lab

Public crime labs are organized at the city, state, or national level.

A law enforcement agency that operates its own crime lab usually has access to a higher level laboratory for analysis of their evidence.

[1] The Los Angeles Police Department founded the first crime laboratory in the United States (1923), followed by the Bureau of Investigation (1926), forerunner to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(Every Contact Leaves a Trace, Connie Fletcher, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2009, interview with crime lab director) The term "crime lab" has become a part of popular culture, largely due to the TV dramas.

Some of the more famous shows are: Several non-fiction television programs, document the resolution of criminal cases based on the scientific analysis of the evidence: Due to the lack of funding and staff, delays in the ability to test cases has occurred creating a backlog in the analysis of evidence.