The Forensic Services Section is staffed with Forensic Specialists that are on call 24 hours a day.  The Forensic Specialist is responsible for processing major crimes scenes at the request of the Forensic Supervisor or Duty Commander. 

Crime scene processing includes locating, photographing, diagramming, collecting and preserving physical evidence including latent prints, footwear impressions, biological and trace evidence.  The Forensic Section annually processes over 2,000 items of evidence in the lab for the presence of fingerprints.

The Inglewood Police Department uses an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).  AFIS allows Section personnel to directly query both the Los Angles County and FBI fingerprint database for suspect fingerprints left at crime scenes.  Crime scene fingerprints are searched in AFIS databases against a known suspect’s fingerprints.  This allows the Department to solve a greater number of crimes.

Personnel are also responsible for latent print identification and comparison.  All Inglewood Police Forensic Specialists are court qualified experts and testify frequently on their findings.

The Section is one of the first in Los Angeles County to use a complete digital photography format.  The digital images are downloaded to a secure in-house database and can be printed for court displays.