11/16/2009 5:13:00 AM
Getting to Know.... a forensic scientist
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BY KIRK DOUGAL
Times Bulletin Editor
kdougal@timesbulletin.com
The crime scene investigator walks through the darkened office, the glow from their flashlight reflecting dimly off their $2,000 suit. They hook their hair behind one ear as they lean over the corpse laying on the floor and then search in the dead person's pocket, all while talking to their colleagues.
Not so fast, says Karen Bruewer. Everything the CSI was doing in that scene was wrong. And Bruewer should know. She is a real life forensic scientist.
Bruewer remembers exactly when she became interested in becoming a forensic scientist. It was during her seventh grade year when she was home from school one day. She was watching a television show that had on a woman from the Boston crime lab discussing her job. Up until that point Bruewer had wanted to be police officer or FBI agent when she was older but as the woman kept talking, the little girl's interest was piqued.
"You know what," Bruewer said she was thinking at the time. "I don't want to be shot at. I don't want to be a police officer. So instead of a badge and gun, I want to use a magnifying glass and become a scientist in the crime laboratory."
That decision stuck with Bruewer and set her off down a path of continuing education. She pointed out that a forensic scientist must have at least a bachelor's degree in science. Most of the time the students choose chemistry, bio-chemistry, biology or physics. She believes that her choice, chemistry, is the best option because it is the basic essential science for what the career requires.
A person can go to work in a crime lab with only the bachelor's degree but she recommends continuing on with their education with at least a master's degree since the field almost necessitates specializing in an area like fluids or trace evidence. But even if they do not continue on for the next college degree, a forensic scientist never actually stops going to school. They must stay current with all of the different technologies and techniques that are being developed every day in the field.
Bruewer actually started out thinking she wanted to work in trace evidence. But as she went through obtaining her master's degree, she quickly discovered that she did not like spending all of her time looking through a microscope. At the time she was studying at the University of New Haven, putting herself through school as a teaching assistant. Her mentor was a well-known specialist in the blood and body fluid area and she learned that she liked that aspect of the job and decided to make it her specialty as well.
There are many different paths that a forensic scientist can take for employment after they have graduated. Bruewer always wanted to work with the police so she actually went to work for the Indiana State Police laboratory. There are labs within the FBI, ATF and universities but there are also private companies that can use the same skills. Hospitals and environmental labs are two such examples.
Bruewer is now back into teaching after working in the police lab for several years. She is a professor at IPFW in Intro to Forensic Science and also at the University of St. Francis in Forensic Chemistry, the Advanced Evidence course and this spring will add Expert Witness Testimony to her classes.
She laughed when asked if the students she sees these days are disillusioned by what the real work is like after watching the CSI shows on television.
"Oh, they love 'CSI: New York' or one of those series. But see when I was starting out in the 70's and 80's, I watched 'Quincy.' Back then that was considered the CSI of the time and even the people in the field were 'I don't want to hear about that. That's just a fake show.' Well, that's what I feel about CSI, but it's bringing interest to the field and so we are getting all kinds of people coming in. They may not stay once they discover it's not as glamorous as the show and you don't always get all the cool things to do in the laboratory but they basically come into it because of that show. That's actually good."
Bruewer talked about some of the misconceptions that arise from watching forensic scientists on the current crop of television shows. One of the biggest issues deals with time. On the shows, the actors run DNA matches in hours and fingerprint matches in a matter of minutes. In reality, those DNA tests would take weeks and the fingerprint tests run through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) would yield 15-20 possible matches which would then need to be looked at by a human being to make a match. Also, AFIS does not produce a suspect's driver license photo like they do on the shows.
She also said they use technologies on the show that not only do not exist now but are so far in the future she doubted she would ever see them in her career. One example she gave was 3-D holographic imaging of bones.
Another thing that happens on the shows that does not happen in real life is each person's responsibilities. Because of cast limitations, on television one person processes the scene, they interview witnesses and suspects and they go back to the labs and perform work there.
"That's not true," she said. "Real crime scene people do crime scene and that's it. The detectives are the ones who interview the witnesses and the suspects. Our people just basically stay in the lab." She went on to add that there are occasions where forensic scientists go to crime scenes. She herself has been to them a handful of times over her career but it has been months later looking for blood splatter and other evidence. Also, the only time they ever see witnesses or suspects are in court when they are called to give testimony but even then there is no contact between them.
Bruewer laughed out loud when she talked about what the CSI actors wear at the crime scenes. Instead of wearing expensive clothing, real forensic scientists wear work clothes and lab coats or medical scrubs. Face masks are worn a great deal of the time so that if they talk over the evidence, their DNA does not contaminate it. She also pointed out that crime scene investigators wear protective suits so that fibers from their clothes do not mix into the scene as well. Finally, the lighting on television is all wrong. Instead of the dim and mysterious lights seen on CSI, real investigators try to have as much light as possible so they don't miss any evidence.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the shows intruding on real forensic scientists is what is called the "CSI effect." Bruewer said that prosecutors now will call for her testimony - even if she found nothing - because juries will question why a forensic scientist was never called to the stand. Another example of that is a famous case from a few years ago when a jury questioned why the forensic scientist did not perform a certain test to prove a suspect's guilt. The problem was that the test only existed on the television show and not in real life.
Despite all that, Bruewer loves what she does whether she is in a lab or teaching students how to perform the tests and realizes how important a job it is.
"I don't have a vested interest. I just hope justice is served because there is no point in having the wrong person convicted."
(To see Karen Bruewer perform some forensic science tests and talk about what the career entails, please go to www.timesbulletin.com and watch this week's Black Swamp Journal.)
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