See Forensic Laboratory from background [VIDEO]

It is enough to visit the first two laboratories in the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw: the Dactyloscopic Laboratory and the Forensic Genetics Laboratory to realise that the scope of tasks of forensic technicians and policemen from the investigation section requires knowledge from many fields, including chemistry, physics, biology, biotechnology and psychology. Apart from that, it is necessary to be patient, scrupulous and able to concentrate for many hours. ‘Good fitness is also necessary. We often work for several hours without interruption on the scene,’ says one of the policemen. ‘Another indispensable thing is intuition and the sense of where you can find traces that may become crucial to solving the mystery. This is something you can't learn on courses or from books.’

Take, for instance, dactyloscopy – in films you can see men in suits who operate a brush on the crime scene and enter the result of the visual inspection into the computer, which spits out the perpetrator’s photograph.

Poles better than the Scotland Yard

The Dactyloscopic Laboratory in Wroclaw occupies several rooms full of specialised equipment and cabinets filled with chemical reagents, lamps and apparatuses. ‘Dactyloscopy includes not only the examination of fingerprints, but also, for example, of ears and the mouth – they are unique, too,’ says DCI Edward Polakiewicz from the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw. ‘Besides, it was Polish forensic experts who developed a method of identification of lip vermillion. This helped solve the case of a female mass murderer of children in Sweden, which was too difficult even for investigation officers from the Scotland Yard. Presentations of the premises of the Forensic Laboratory of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw are one of the events of the Night of Laboratories on the 10th of October.

The Wroclaw police laboratory prepares 13,000 expert opinions in several fields of forensics every year. During the Night of Laboratories, in the courtyard of the building of the University of Environmental and Life Sciences at Pl. Grunwaldzki 24a, a road accident will be arranged. Traffic police officers will show how they work in the case of an accident. A demonstration of work of an investigation team on the scene of a serious crime is also planned. Presentations of individual forensic laboratories are going to be interesting. This will be an opportunity to learn about the rules of creating an identikit, methods of work of the laboratory examining the content of alcohol in body fluids and methods used by specialists examining audio recordings, videos and computer equipment.

The policemen stress that, on the one hand, they want to present their professional techniques, but, on the other hand, the meeting during the Night of Laboratories is also educational. ‘We want to show what makes our work on the scene easier and what makes it more difficult,’ says Polakiewicz. ‘For example, when the owner of a robbed flat learns about the fact, he immediately checks the place where he hid his valuables and destroys traces left by perpetrators incidentally.

If you want to see demonstrations of work of professionals from the Forensic Laboratory, registration is required. The detailed plan of presentations and the registration form are available at: noclaboratoriow.pl.