Management of crime scene units by Quebec police senior managers : insight on forensic knowledge and understanding of key stakeholders
Article [Accepted Manuscript]
Abstract(s)
What do policing leaders think and know of forensic science? Beyond crime scene investigators
or detectives, how do police senior managers perceive the role, utility and limitations of forensic science?
Very few empirical studies have addressed the issue. Forensic scientsts should be concerned about the
perception that law enforcement senior managers have of their discipline for two reasons. First, strategic
and financial decision-makers are obviously key players in the overall administration and provision of
forensic science, either as a supervisor, money provider or as a customer. Second, literature has
highlighted that other actors involved in forensic science underestimate the scope and possibilities
offered by forensic science, hence limiting its exploitation and potential. Following interviews with 18
police senior managers from Quebec (Canada), this study shows that they generally restrict forensic
science to a reactive discipline whose role and utility is to identify offenders and support the Court. This
understanding of forensic science, like that of many others including a significant share of forensic
scientists, differs from the perception of other police activities in modern law enforcement agencies
where proactive action is sought. Considering these findings and the growing body of literature which
calls for forensic science to connect more tightly with policing and security, we advocate a more
extensive education of police leaders regarding the scope of forensic science.
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