Dramatic changes are taking place in how the Boston Police Department investigates crimes. Police personnel are now using the latest scientific investigative tools and techniques available to identify suspects, process crime scenes, collect and examine evidence, and prosecute criminals.

The Boston Police Crime Laboratory Unit is the source of many of these innovations. it provides the Department with a secure evidence collection, preparation, and storage facility, additional forensic testing and scientific evidence evaluation capabilities, and expert witness testimony in 411 court proceedings. Established forty years ago at 154 Berkeley Street, the Crime Lab recently moved into a new $2.7 million facility at Boston Police Headquarters that is outfitted with an exciting array of specialized equipment which includes the state's only public forensic DNA laboratory-one of only 18 in the nation.

This new facility was designed to meet the highest standards of excellence in forensic science, and comes equipped with dedicated laboratory space for serology (analysis of bodily fluids), DNA analysis, trace evidence examination, and the chemical and physical processing of evidence. A unique evidence examination room-created specifically to accommodate a broad range of forensic evidence analysis needs-contains a custom walk-in biological safety hood, and tools such as alternative light sources to aid in identifying, presenting, cataloging and photographing physical evidence. Nearby freezers can preserve biological evidence for decades, and the laboratory is also equipped with the latest in computer evidence submission and tracking systems, and is connected to forensic laboratories throughout the nation and around the world.

As the first and only public lab of its kind in Massachusetts, the Department's DNA Laboratory enables its highly-trained staff to analyze biological evidence collected at crime scenes to determine whether they could have come from a suspect, or, equally important, to state definitively that they could not have come from a particular suspect. DNA testing typically compares an evidence sample with a reference sample obtained from a suspect. These testing methods are so accurate that if they produce consistent DNA results, the likelihood of the evidence sample originating from someone other than the particular suspect in question would be greater than one in a billion.

In addition to helping to solve recent cases, this technology is also used to solve older "cold case" homicides using evidence which could not be analyzed when the crime initially occurred, but can now be analyzed using the Department's new scientific equipment and techniques.