Shortly after becoming the FBI's fourth director in 1924, J. Edgar Hoover envisioned a national crime laboratory under the auspicies of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hoover had been influenced by August Vollmer, the innovative chief of the Berkeley, California Police Department and John H. Wigmore, author and professor at Northwestern University Law School. Vollmer and Wigmore were the pioneers behind the formation of the Scientific Crime Detection Lab formed in Chicago in the wake of the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre. These practitioner scholars believed that the developing fields within forensic science, coupled with highly trained criminal investigators, would someday bring victory over crime. Hoover had already made the image of the latent fingerprint the unofficial logo of the FBI. A FBI crime laboratory would advance Hoover's goal to create the ideal crime fighter--an highly educated, well-trained scientific crime detection professional.
In April 1931, Hoover sent Special Agent Charles A. Appel, Jr. to Chicago where he enrolled in a short course sponsored by the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory which was a private, fee-charging lab partially funded by Northwestern University. Most of the lab's case load consisted of forensic document examination, firearm identification (then called forensic ballistics), and research and development of the newly invented polygraph technique.) In 1938 the Scientific Crime Detection Lab would be taken over by the Chicago Police Department. Hoover also sent agent Appel to police departments in St. Louis (in 1906 the first police department to establish a fingerprint identification bureau), New Orleans, and Detroit, the only law enforcement agencies besides Berkeley and Los Angeles that operated crime labs.
The FBI Technical Laboratory, with Charles Appel as its head, opened its doors on November 24, 1932 (in 1942 it was renamed the FBI Laboratory) in a nine-by-nine foot room in the Southern Railway Building at Thirteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. Special Agent Appel, its director and only employee, performed firearm identification work using a comparison microscope, a device for examining the interior of a gun barrel, and, to produce forensic exhibits of the physical evidence, utilized basic photographic equipment. The FBI Lab, as advertised by Hoover, would provide evidence anyalysis and testimony for the bureau, and for any local law enforcement agency that requested it--at no cost. Hoover also promised research and development in the various criminalistic fields. Hoover's ambitious undertaking would eventually make the FBI an indispensable, and highly visible cog, in the nation's crime-fighting machine.
By 1940, the laboratory, now located at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, employed firearm identificaton experts, questioned document examiners, forensic chemists, physicists, metallurgists specializing in tool mark identification, forensic geologists (soil examinations), hair and fiber analysists, forensic serologists (blood and bodily fluids examinations), and latent fingerprint identification experts. The laboratory, employing over a hundred people, had gotten so large it was divided into three sections: questioned documents; physics and chemistry; and latent fingerprint identification. At this time, only fifteen police departments, and sixteen states operated crime labs. The FBI Lab continued to grow, and by 1958, employed two-hundred scientific, clerical and administrative personnel.
The FBI Laboratory, by the end of the 1980's, was the busiest, and most famous crime lab in the world. It had also become one of the top tourist attractions in Washington, DC. But even in its heyday, because of the quantity of forensic examinations and laboratory hiring criteria, there were problems with the quality of the work being done. The FBI Lab was the biggest and the most famous, but not the best. Because it was nearly overwhelmed by a staggering case load, and did not hire top-rate scientists, there was no research and development, some bad science, and a problem with scientific objectivity. Besides having to compete for personnel with a growing number of city, county, and state crime labs, the FBI only hired lab employees who also met the criteria for the position of Special Agent. In fact, all FBI Lab personnel (except clerical employees) were first sent into the field to work as agents, many of whom had to be dragged kicking and screaming back to DC to work inside a crime lab. Many of these people had used their degrees in science to get into the FBI to become investigators, not bureau criminalists. Moreover, the close identification with law enforcement created by three years in the field as special agents worked against scientific objectivity. (The FBI has since changed its crime lab hiring criteria.)
J. Edgar Hoover died in office in May 1972, and by 1990, there was nothing left of his reputation and status as an American law enforcement pioneer. The mere mention of his name on a TV sitcom or a late night talk show brought instant laughter. Once a powerful and innovative man, Hoover, like so many other American historical figures--Charles Lindbergh for one--had been reduced by a tabloid culture and hack journalism into a character you might find in an underground comic book. The post-Hoover image of the FBI agent, while having lost some of its luster, had not gone down with the Hoover ship. Notwithstanding his fall from grace, Hoover's most profound contribution to the art and science of criminal investigation, the FBI Crime Laboratory, is still considered the gold standard of forensic science in America.
In April 1931, Hoover sent Special Agent Charles A. Appel, Jr. to Chicago where he enrolled in a short course sponsored by the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory which was a private, fee-charging lab partially funded by Northwestern University. Most of the lab's case load consisted of forensic document examination, firearm identification (then called forensic ballistics), and research and development of the newly invented polygraph technique.) In 1938 the Scientific Crime Detection Lab would be taken over by the Chicago Police Department. Hoover also sent agent Appel to police departments in St. Louis (in 1906 the first police department to establish a fingerprint identification bureau), New Orleans, and Detroit, the only law enforcement agencies besides Berkeley and Los Angeles that operated crime labs.
The FBI Technical Laboratory, with Charles Appel as its head, opened its doors on November 24, 1932 (in 1942 it was renamed the FBI Laboratory) in a nine-by-nine foot room in the Southern Railway Building at Thirteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. Special Agent Appel, its director and only employee, performed firearm identification work using a comparison microscope, a device for examining the interior of a gun barrel, and, to produce forensic exhibits of the physical evidence, utilized basic photographic equipment. The FBI Lab, as advertised by Hoover, would provide evidence anyalysis and testimony for the bureau, and for any local law enforcement agency that requested it--at no cost. Hoover also promised research and development in the various criminalistic fields. Hoover's ambitious undertaking would eventually make the FBI an indispensable, and highly visible cog, in the nation's crime-fighting machine.
By 1940, the laboratory, now located at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, employed firearm identificaton experts, questioned document examiners, forensic chemists, physicists, metallurgists specializing in tool mark identification, forensic geologists (soil examinations), hair and fiber analysists, forensic serologists (blood and bodily fluids examinations), and latent fingerprint identification experts. The laboratory, employing over a hundred people, had gotten so large it was divided into three sections: questioned documents; physics and chemistry; and latent fingerprint identification. At this time, only fifteen police departments, and sixteen states operated crime labs. The FBI Lab continued to grow, and by 1958, employed two-hundred scientific, clerical and administrative personnel.
The FBI Laboratory, by the end of the 1980's, was the busiest, and most famous crime lab in the world. It had also become one of the top tourist attractions in Washington, DC. But even in its heyday, because of the quantity of forensic examinations and laboratory hiring criteria, there were problems with the quality of the work being done. The FBI Lab was the biggest and the most famous, but not the best. Because it was nearly overwhelmed by a staggering case load, and did not hire top-rate scientists, there was no research and development, some bad science, and a problem with scientific objectivity. Besides having to compete for personnel with a growing number of city, county, and state crime labs, the FBI only hired lab employees who also met the criteria for the position of Special Agent. In fact, all FBI Lab personnel (except clerical employees) were first sent into the field to work as agents, many of whom had to be dragged kicking and screaming back to DC to work inside a crime lab. Many of these people had used their degrees in science to get into the FBI to become investigators, not bureau criminalists. Moreover, the close identification with law enforcement created by three years in the field as special agents worked against scientific objectivity. (The FBI has since changed its crime lab hiring criteria.)
J. Edgar Hoover died in office in May 1972, and by 1990, there was nothing left of his reputation and status as an American law enforcement pioneer. The mere mention of his name on a TV sitcom or a late night talk show brought instant laughter. Once a powerful and innovative man, Hoover, like so many other American historical figures--Charles Lindbergh for one--had been reduced by a tabloid culture and hack journalism into a character you might find in an underground comic book. The post-Hoover image of the FBI agent, while having lost some of its luster, had not gone down with the Hoover ship. Notwithstanding his fall from grace, Hoover's most profound contribution to the art and science of criminal investigation, the FBI Crime Laboratory, is still considered the gold standard of forensic science in America.
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