Police Identification and Records Officer Collect evidence at crime scene, classify and identify fingerprints, and photograph evidence for use in criminal and civil cases.
Police Identification and Records Officer is Also Know as
In different settings, Police Identification and Records Officer is titled as
- Crime Scene Evidence Technician
- Crime Scene Investigator
- Crime Scene Technician
- Criminalist
- Field Identification Specialist
- Forensic Specialist
- Identification Officer
- Identification Technician
- Latent Fingerprint Examiner
- Latent Print Examiner
Education and Training of Police Identification and Records Officer
Police Identification and Records Officer is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Police Identification and Records Officer
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Police Identification and Records Officer
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Police Identification and Records Officer
- Bachelor in Environmental/Natural Resources Law Enforcement an
- Associate Degree Courses in Environmental/Natural Resources Law Enforcement an
- Masters Degree Courses in Environmental/Natural Resources Law Enforcement an
- Bachelor in Signal/Geospatial Intelligence
- Associate Degree Courses in Signal/Geospatial Intelligence
- Masters Degree Courses in Signal/Geospatial Intelligence
- Bachelor in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Bachelor in Criminal Justice/Police Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Criminal Justice/Police Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Criminal Justice/Police Science
- Bachelor in Law Enforcement Investigation and Interviewing
- Associate Degree Courses in Law Enforcement Investigation and Interviewing
- Masters Degree Courses in Law Enforcement Investigation and Interviewing
- Bachelor in Law Enforcement Record-Keeping and Evidence Manage
- Associate Degree Courses in Law Enforcement Record-Keeping and Evidence Manage
- Masters Degree Courses in Law Enforcement Record-Keeping and Evidence Manage
Training Required for Police Identification and Records Officer
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Police Identification and Records Officer in different industries are
- Forensic Science Technicians
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- Coroners
- Private Detectives and Investigators
- Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts
- Intelligence Analysts
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
- Compliance Officers
- Government Property Inspectors and Investigators
- First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
- Health Information Technologists and Medical Registrars
- Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
- Paralegals and Legal Assistants
- Medical Records Specialists
- Fire Inspectors and Investigators
- Statistical Assistants
- Social Science Research Assistants
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
What Do Police Identification and Records Officer do?
- Photograph crime or accident scenes for evidence records.
- Testify in court and present evidence.
- Dust selected areas of crime scene and lift latent fingerprints, adhering to proper preservation procedures.
- Look for trace evidence, such as fingerprints, hairs, fibers, or shoe impressions, using alternative light sources when necessary.
- Package, store and retrieve evidence.
- Perform emergency work during off-hours.
- Process film and prints from crime or accident scenes.
- Maintain records of evidence and write and review reports.
- Submit evidence to supervisors, crime labs, or court officials for legal proceedings.
- Identify, compare, classify, and file fingerprints, using systems such as Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) or the Henry Classification System.
- Serve as technical advisor and coordinate with other law enforcement workers or legal personnel to exchange information on crime scene collection activities.
- Coordinate or conduct instructional classes or in-services, such as citizen police academy classes and crime scene training for other officers.
- Interview victims, witnesses, suspects, and other law enforcement personnel.
- Analyze and process evidence at crime scenes, during autopsies, or in the laboratory, wearing protective equipment and using powders and chemicals.
- Create sketches and diagrams, by hand or computer software, to depict crime scenes.
Qualities of Good Police Identification and Records Officer
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Police Identification and Records Officer
- 35 millimeter cameras
- Adjustable widemouth pliers
- Automobile door handle removers
- Axes
- Biohazard suits
- Blood collection kits
- Bolt cutters
- Breathalyzers
- Bulletproof vests
- Camera lens filters
- Claw hammers
- Compound light microscopes
- Crime scene rulers
- Crime scene tape measures
- Deoxyribonucleic acid DNA collection kits
- Desktop computers
- Digital cameras
- Digital video cameras
- Distance measuring wheels
- Drug testing kits
- Electronic measuring devices
- Electrostatic dust lifters
- Evidence collection scalpels
- Evidence scissors
- Evidence tweezers
- Filter masks
- Fingerprint brushes
- Fingerprint evidence kits
- Fingerprint scanners
- Footwear protectors
- Fume hoods
- Geological compasses
- Glass evidence vials
- Hacksaws
- Handheld digital thermometers
- Handheld evidence collection computers
- High wavelength ultraviolet UV light
- Impression casting kits
- Infrared light sources
- Instant print cameras
- Laptop computers
- Laser trajectory pointers
- Low wavelength ultraviolet UV light
- Magnifying glasses
- Metal detectors
- Microscope slides
- Mobile data computers
- Orange filter lenses
- Personal computers
- Personal digital assistants PDA
- Phillips head screwdrivers
- Polarized filter lenses
- Portable lasers
- Power generators
- Protective gloves
- Pry bars
- Red filter lenses
- Respirators
- Ridge counters
- Safety glasses
- Shovels
- Socket wrench sets
- Straight screwdrivers
- Telephoto camera lenses
- Two way radios
- Utility knives
- Vise grip pliers
- Wide angle camera lenses
- Wire cutters
- Wood chisels
- Yellow filter lenses
Technology Skills required for Police Identification and Records Officer
- Adobe Photoshop
- Computer aided composite drawing software
- Database software
- DataWorks Plus Digital CrimeScene
- DeChant Consulting Services iWitness
- DesignWare 3D EyeWitness
- Digital Image Management Solutions Crime Scene
- Eos Systems PhotoModeler
- Image enhancement software
- Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System IAFIS
- Linux
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Visio
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database
- National Integrated Ballistics Information Network NIBIN
- SmartDraw Legal
- The CAD Zone The Crime Zone
- Trancite Logic Systems ScenePD
- Visual Statement Vista FX3 CSI
- Web browser software
- Word processing software