Aberdeen
Forensic services in Aberdeen originated in the Aberdeen City Police Headquarters in Lodge Walk in the late 1960s. It began with the employment of the first civilian Forensic Assistant in what was then the Identification Branch of Aberdeen City Police, to assist the Detective Inspector in charge of that unit and a Detective Constable with Chemistry qualifications. This amalgam of forensic science, scenes of crime, photography etc continued with increasing staff numbers for nearly twenty years, until, having since been relocated into a new Police HQ in 1970, the Forensic Science Laboratory became a separate entity in 1985.
In 2001, fingerprint services within Grampian Police moved to become part of the newly established Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS). Prior to the creation of the SFS, fingerprint services within Grampian Police were carried out by members of the forces identification branch. These officers were trained as dual role officers, i.e. they were both fingerprint experts and scene of crime officers and were required to perform these duties on a rotational basis of usually one year in each section. With the creation of the Aberdeen Bureau of the SFS, these officers had to choose which discipline they wanted to specialise in.
The Aberdeen Bureau of the SFS was organised into four teams covering geographical areas of the force network and Northern Constabulary. These teams still exist today and process all the crime scene fingerprints for the respective area of their responsibility which includes quality control, elimination and suspect/arrested person checks. Each team also maintains the manual searching collections containing specific types of offenders for each geographical area e.g. house break-in, and unlawful removals.
Since 2006, administrative control of what was the Identification Bureau, now Scenes Examination Branch (SEB), has been the responsibility of the Principal Scientist of the Laboratory, thus providing both Grampian Police and Northern Constabulary with a fully integrated forensic support capability encompassing crime scene examinations, mark development, photography, general biology, DNA, general chemistry and drugs analysis as core services. The Laboratory currently employs a total of 31 staff, with the Scenes Examination Branch adding a further 22 to the total.
In 2007, following the establishment of the Scottish Police Services Authority and the subsequent creation of the Forensic Services business area, the Scenes Examination Branch and the Laboratory merged with the Aberdeen Bureau of the SFS to form the Aberdeen Branch of the SPSA Forensic Services.