The role of the Forensic Identification section of the Moose Jaw Police Service was presented to commissioners at last week’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting. 

Constable Evan Schwabe has been with the Moose Jaw Police Service since 2013, and with the Forensic Identification section since 2019.  

“We go to a lot of the serious calls in nature – the murders, the homicides, we deal with a lot of the sexual assaults, things like that,” explained Schwabe.  

Training for the section involves a 38-day course at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa, with a primary focus being on learning how to identify fingerprints. “In the final exam, if you fail to identify a fingerprint, or you get one wrong, you automatically fail the course.” 

He said that they also learn about different chemicals, powders, and processes, and how to use them to find fingerprints on different surfaces. Once a fingerprint is identified by one officer, it requires verification by a second officer.  

Stolen cars and break ins are common situations where they will use fingerprints, with the ability to take them from the scene and compare prints recovered with a database in Ottawa. “Anyone who ever gets arrested, we take their fingerprints, and they’re automatically in the database,” said Schwabe. 

Other information applied after taking the course is techniques for photographing and videoing crime scenes. “Photographing those scenes is key, because you’re laying out everything for the court, the jury, the judge.” 

Schwabe also spoke about locating, recovering, and preserving DNA or other evidence at crime scenes. “When a person convicted of – usually the more serious crimes – a judge will order them to provide DNA for the national data bank." 

“[We] will take that DNA as well, and then it gets put on the database forever and ever. If they commit anymore crimes, and we get their DNA at a crime scene, then we’ll get a hit from the database.” 

He said the section will respond to sudden deaths and possible suicides. “Typically, we get called until we can determine it’s not a murder or homicide, and then the coroner’s service takes over from there, but a lot of times we work hand-in-hand with the coroner to try to determine how a person died.” 

In addition to being in the Forensic Identification section, Schwabe is also the liaison for the Moose Jaw Warriors. “You talk about things like consent, drugs, alcohol – the list goes on and on.” 

“It’s good that we’re developing that relationship with the team, and some of these guys, they feel like they can come to the police if they have any issues,” he added.