SPSA Forensic Services

Dundee 

Until the mid 1980s Fife Constabulary and Tayside police had relied on external police forces and universities for their forensic services. Tayside police and Fife Constabulary went into partnership to create the Police Forensic Science Laboratory Dundee (PFSLD) in 1989, in Tayside Police HQ, with a staff of three providing biology, paint, glass, blood alcohol levels and fire investigation services.

DNA casework analyses was introduced in 1991 and in April 1993, Central Scotland became a partner force, with all their casework, plus drugs analyses previously undertaken by the Public Analyst for all three forces, transferring to the PFSLD

In 1996, the PFSLD formed a Scottish DNA Database.

The Dundee Fingerprint Bureau was responsible for providing Tayside Police with an identification service since it was formed in 1948. The bureau also provided a service to the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), Ministry of Defence and the British Transport Police and since the creation of the Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) in October 2001 was the supplier of fingerprint identification for Fife Constabulary.

All members of staff with the exception of the Head of Bureau and the administration assistant are fingerprint officers trained to fingerprint expert level or are trainee fingerprint officers. The staff at Dundee have varied and diverse experience ranging from an ex-police officer with over 30 years experience in fingerprints to officers who have worked in the Metropolitan fingerprint bureau and the Fife bureau before its closure in 2001.

In 2007, the Police Forensic Laboratory merged with the SFS Dundee Bureau and with Central Scotland Police and Fife Constabulary Scene of Crime Departments to form the Dundee branch of the SPSA Forensic Services.

Today they provide a full range of forensic science services to Tayside, Fife and Central Scotland and national specialists services in relation to DNA Databasing, Criminal Paternity and Human Remains Identification.  They provide a European wide service in security DNA analysis and undertake consultancy and defence work for external agencies.

There are over 110 staff split into administration, biology, chemistry, DNA Database, scene examination, scientific support and fingerprint services.