Forensic investigation is a profession with the law enforcement field (Pyrek, 2007). This professional mainly involves gathering and analysis of data from crime scenes. The first quality that one should look for in a forensics investigator is academic qualification. Forensic investigation is technical fields that require knowledge in various disciplines including; law, psychology, compute and laboratory work among many others (Pyrek, 2007). This implies that individuals must have an academic background in law enforcement and crime investigation. They must also have a good academic background in the forensic area of specialization. The candidate must have a formal certification, that proves he or she has been trained in the area of specialization.
Apart from academic qualifications, good investigators must have certain essential skills. One of these skills is good communication (Pyrek, 2007). Forensic investigators are often required to communicate with other people in the course of collecting facts about a particular case. An individual in possession of good communication skills enjoy greater capability of geting the required information.
Forensic investigators are also required to compile and present reports of their investigation (Pyrek, 2007). Thus, a good individual for this job must possess good written communication skills. In addition, forensic investigators are sometimes required to present scientific evidence in court as testimony. Thus, these individual need excellent written and spoken communication skills in order to present difficult technical data in a way that is understandable to the public, police and jury.
Ethics and integrity is also an important quality of a good forensic investigator. Forensic investigators are charged with the important responsibility of gathering evidence and analyzing evidence that will help the law enforcement agents to arrive at a conclusion concerning a particular crime (Pyrek, 2007). A high integrity is required to ensure that the right conclusion is arrived at after forensic investigations are conducted.
Apart from high level of integrity, forensic investigation is also a professional field that guided by a set of ethical standards. These ethical standards touch on various areas including; value for the law, truthfulness and other people’s rights. Another quality that makes a good forensic investigator is being analytical. An analytical person usually follows a systematic way of thinking and doing things. They use clear and elaborate procedure to come up with an explanation or a conclusion to a certain problem. They also have a sharp eye for details. They can easily recognize an erroneous detail or pattern. A good forensic investigator must be in possession of analytical skills.
A person with a lengthy experience in the law enforcement field would have an added advantage over other candidates (Pyrek, 2007). However, this qualification would not be given prevalence of other qualification such as the ability to adopt. Law enforcement is a very dynamic field. New technologies, cultures and changing times are leading to the development new perspectives of doing things. This includes giving rise to new forms of crime. This implies that the field of criminal investigation must also evolve inline with these changes. Thus, forensics investigators need to be very flexible and adaptive to new situations.
All the qualifications discussed above are fairly important in making a good forensic investigator (Pyrek, 2007). However, the most important quality should be integrity and ethics. This is because no matter how qualified an individual would be in all other areas, without integrity his job will always be compromised. Shortcoming in other areas such as communication skills can easily be overcome through training. However, it is hard to change an individual who lacks integrity.
Reference
Pyrek K. (2007). “Forensic Science under Siege”. USA. Academic Press
