O. J. did it. “His murder case was the watershed event,” says Barry Fisher, director of the crime laboratory for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “After that, the public became a lot more interested in forensics.” This pop culture connection is not new. “‘Quincy’ and other cop shows before ‘CSI’ have also stumbled into forensics. Every time it happens, the public gets more interested,” he says.

Ambassador for science?
Fisher joined the L.A. County crime lab in 1969, has been its director since 1987, and is a national spokesman for forensic scientists. He says that fame has mostly been good for his field, but that there are also minor drawbacks. “CSI pays more than the government does, so a lot of the technical consultants on that show used to work for us,” he says. “But the folks on the show have also been very generous.” When a consortium of national forensic science organizations went to lobby in Washington DC recently, the show sent one of their stars to help out. CSI also contributed to the California Forensic Science Institute and its goal of a new regional crime lab at Cal State Los Angeles. The new building, which is almost ready for occupancy, will bring state-of-the-art forensic science techniques to more cases in Southern California.

“Forensics is a way to make science relevant,” says Fisher. “I am a chemist, and I know that it is hard to get young people interested in the field by simply talking about molecules. But if you can give them a real-world example of what organic chemistry can do, they begin to think it’s cool. Forensics is an antidote to the idea that scientists are nerds.”

The 12 years since O.J. Simpson’s trial ended have transformed forensics. “The quality of our job applicants has absolutely improved,” says Fisher. “If we’re hiring for a position that requires a undergraduate degree, half of the applicants will have a masters degree and it is not uncommon to see them with doctoral degrees. Also, there are usually more candidates than there are jobs. But at the same time, crime labs are hiring lots of people because of the growth of DNA evidence.”

Barry Fisher
The day may come soon when someone with a degree in criminology cannot find a job in the field. “But that isn’t a bad thing, because forensics training can be a gateway to traditional jobs in science and medicine,” says Fisher. “Young people who get into science through crime investigation will often move on to other areas of science.

“A few years ago, when I was president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, I pleaded with the National Science Foundation to focus more on the field. I got nowhere. Some high-up NSF guy said to me, ‘forensic science is not real science. We’re only involved in real science.’ And even now, the number of forensics research projects at NSF is close to zero. So it amuses me when people wring their hands about a crisis in getting school children interested in science. Forensics does that. It is a positive side effect.”