Profile of a CSI

"Sometimes I think of myself as a scientist, and sometimes I think of myself as a cop," says Gerald "Jerry" Devlin, a Crime Scene Investigator with the police department in a small, Northern California city. Devlin won't give too many details because the nature of his profession requires some degree of anonymity.

"As a scientist, I am the first in my family. However, the cop side of the equation is part of a family tradition that reaches way back to the old country."

The "old country" in Devlin's case is Ireland. His great grandfather was a village constable there and his grandfather walked a beat in New York City before World War One.

"I used to look at their pictures on the mantelpiece—in their fine uniforms—when I was a kid and dream about doing some kind of police work when I grew up."


We asked Devlin to describe a typical day in his work life.

"Well, when I'm lucky, I'm one of the first people on the scene of a crime after it has been reported. I get there before the regular police personnel and the local press have tramped around and messed things up."

Some parts of the job, according to Devlin, are pretty routine, and some parts are adventures right out of an action movie.

"The most important rule in my work, is to keep my eyes open. What I do is to look for evidence and then use scientific principles to analyze it. It could be paint chips or it could be hair or it could be bits of human flesh or bones. Almost anything can be a clue. I also usually photograph and sketch details of the crime scene. I have to take notes about everything I see because I often get called on to testify in court."


After he gathers and examines the evidence, Devlin packages and labels it for use by the police, the prosecutors and defense attorneys.

So that is the routine part of the CSI profession. We ask Jerry Devlin to tell us about one of his more adventurous days.

"Most of the crimes I investigate are burglaries and such, but there are also murders. One time I was finishing up my work in a house where someone had been bludgeoned to death. I had given the OK for the coroner to remove the body and most of the policemen had gone. I was pretty much alone. I was making sure I had covered all the details when I noticed some strange scratch marks around the floor boards in a closet. It was a hidden trapdoor and when I opened it, there was the murderer hiding right there on the scene. He jumped out at me, but fortunately I carry a service revolver all the time and I was able to arrest him and yell for one of the cops who was still downstairs to come up and cuff him."

How did Devlin get into his current profession?

"I was an ordinary police officer and I realized I wanted to go higher. I had a wife and a young kid and I couldn't just quit my job to go back to school. So I found an online college and enrolled. I was able to study for a few hours every night after they went to bed. After a pretty short time, I had my CSI certificate and I was able to take and pass the Crime Scene Investigator exam. So here I am."

Find out more about Criminal Justice Careers and Professions, Criminal Justice Degree Program and Online Criminal Justice Degrees.

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Martin A. David is professional writer and translator. He has published thousands of articles, fiction and non-fiction books, and translations of classical Danish literature. He is also active as an actor and director in theatre and film.