| About Us | |
| Forensic Services Division | |
| Vision | |
| Our authority is a trust from the people. We must maintain the highest level of departmental and individual integrity. The role of the Superintendent is to help coordinate and cooperate with the entire criminal justice system to create (in fact) a system where one does not currently exist, to improve the safety of the citizens of the State. Local government has the primary responsibility for public safety. The department has an obligation to assist local communities by:
We need to create a criminal justice system that encompasses strategic planning to address our crime and public safety issues. A plan that is holistic, that involves all levels of community and is actually an investment plan for Oregon's future. We will, in partnership with local communities, define the roles of the department and each component of the criminal justice community. We will move to a new tradition of policing that is typified by individual creativity, problem solving, resourcefulness, and partnerships. Police must change the way they view themselves to a view of a "Community based problem solver concerned with the community's peace and safety". We must be able to respond to our changing environment of demographic and economic diversity. We must create a diverse work force to deal with current problems and future opportunities for success. We must develop high quality professionals and paraprofessionals to deal with the problems of tomorrow. We must Collectively identify common goals with measurable objectives. The department will compliment, not compete with local law enforcement. We need to leverage the technology to the greatest extent possible to effect the most productive use of our human resources. We must work with labor to responsibly find and acceptable balance between the need to provide effective and efficient services and labors demands through the collective bargaining process. Law enforcement no longer lives in a closed society. We must look beyond our traditional view of who owns the problems of society and how the problems will be solved. | |
| Mission Statement | |
| The mission of the Oregon State Police is to develop, promote, and maintain protection of people, property, and natural resources of the State, and to enhance the safety and livability by serving and protecting its citizens and visitors through leadership, action, and coordination of Oregon's public safety resources. | |
| Organization | |
| Annual Performance Measures The Forensic Services Division is a nationally accredited forensic laboratory system serving all state and local law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and prosecuting attorneys in Oregon. The Division also performs forensic analysis on criminal cases for the defense upon a court order. The Forensic Services Division provides Oregon’s only full service forensic laboratory system. Our analysts provide technical assistance and training, evaluate and analyze evidence, interpret results, and provide expert testimony related to the full spectrum of physical evidence recovered from crime scenes. This forensic analysis is provided by more than 100 employees, strategically located at the Division’s six regional laboratories in Bend, Central Point, Ontario, Pendleton, Portland, and Springfield. The regions are designed to provide optimum customer service for crime scene response and interaction with local law enforcement. The Director of the Forensic Services Division, along with the Division’s Quality Assurance Manager, are located at the State Police General Headquarters in Salem. Each of the six regional laboratories are led by a director, who is responsible to oversee local operations and administer the local laboratory’s budget. Although each laboratory has an assigned region, they function collectively in a "single system culture", providing the best service possible to our customers. Under this single system approach, laboratories continuously balance workload by transferring cases to other facilities to ensure the quickest turnaround time. Therefore, each laboratory has at its disposal the entire Division’s statewide resources. The Forensic Services Division is committed to providing the highest quality scientific analysis to the criminal justice system. This quality is translated into accurate, complete, and timely analysis. The division has a well-defined set of forensic science standards and controls for analysts to follow. As important as these standards and controls are, they do not reduce the need to check work. To monitor the quality of its case work the division carries out the following procedures: all analysts are proficiency tested annually, casework is randomly reviewed by a second analyst, case files are inspected for compliance to standards, random cases are reworked, and each laboratory is annually audited by the Quality Assurance Manager. An external audit is conducted every five years by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors - Laboratory Accreditation Board. Forensic Scientists must have a minimum college level bachelor degree in programs such as chemistry, biochemistry, biology or microbiology. | |
