By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Crime scene investigators Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows do it all—scour the scene, test laboratory samples, and catch the criminal. All between commercials and under an hour.

Forensic science veteran Bill Alvine, who lives at Cedar Crest, says it doesn’t work that way. “Today, many of your forensic scientists are just specialists in one field. Because of developing the laboratories that I did, I had to be a specialist in all fields—from homicides to airplane accidents to defective products,” he says.

As one of the first investigators to enter the field, Alvine founded and directed independent forensic science laboratories in New Jersey and Florida, authored case and litigation history novels, and became renowned in the industry.

Fact vs. fiction
As TV shows like CSI, Cold Case, Law & Order, and NCIS gain popularity among older viewers, Alvine says he receives more and more questions as to what is fact and what is fiction.

He, along with numerous recent reports, says the televi- sion shows misrepresent the real world of forensic science and consequently challenge the judicial system. “I’m questioned by so many of my fellow citizens here at Cedar Crest who are retired. They all see [CSI] and question why we can’t solve these crimes and why there is such a delay,” he says.

But in reality, criminal investigations can take several years to solve, not several days as represented on television. To aggravate the situation even more, much of the technology on CSI-like shows does not exist, raising expectations, said Alison Morris of Toronto’s Centre of Forensic Sciences in a December 2006 Globe and Mail article.

“That’s not the way we saw it on television,” respond juries, shocking judges with verdicts of not guilty. “That’s what has made so many of our present-day citizens become experts,” says Alvine.

“It’s very unfair to all of our district attorneys, our attorney generals, and our prosecutors,” he says. CSI producers declined to comment.