The Forensic Services Division provides a wide range of forensic science expertise to the Charleston Police Department, as well as numerous other law enforcement, public safety, and fire departments at the local, state, and federal levels of jurisdiction. The Division is a component of the Investigations Bureau and offers services in the following accredited disciplines: body fluid identification, digital analysis, fire debris, friction ridge recovery and identification, and seized drugs. Services are also provided in crime scene investigation, serial number restoration, NIBIN acquisition and correlation, and photography/audiovisual/graphic design. The Division is led by the Forensic Services Director, and the staff includes crime scene investigators, latent print examiners, forensic scientists, photographers, digital evidence examiners, a quality manager, and a laboratory technician.
The Division achieved crime laboratory accreditation in 1998 and has maintained it since. The Division is currently accredited by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) in Forensic Testing under ISO/IEC 17025.