Career Opportunity

Criminalist III, Latent Print – SFPD (8262)

Recruitment: RTF0151652-01108659

Published: October 30, 2024

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About:

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) was established in 1849 and continually strives to become a more effective inclusive and modern police department while earning the trust and pride of those we serve and those who serve. Our goal is to reflect on current SFPD initiatives, assess best practices across the country and evaluate the changing environment in policing and within the City to arrive at a strategy statement that the Department and our community can embody every day.

The San Francisco Police Department stands for Safety and Respect for All. We will engage in just, transparent, unbiased and responsive policing. We will do so in the spirit of dignity and in collaboration with the community. We will continuously maintain and build trust and respect as the guardians of Constitutional and human rights.

The San Francisco Police Department is committed to excellence in law enforcement and is dedicated to the people, traditions and diversity of our City. The department provides service with understanding, response with compassion, performance with integrity and law enforcement with vision. The department has grown into a nationally known police department providing law enforcement services to one of the most recognized cities in the United States.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process are listed below:

• Application Opening: October 30, 2024
• Application Deadline: Apply immediately, announcement may close any time after 5 days from posting date.
• Class & Compensation: $167,310 - $203,372
• Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt - This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer. The duration of the appointment shall not exceed 36 months.
• Work Location: 1995 Evans Ave, San Francisco, CA 94124.
• Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, Full-time.

Role description

Under general direction of the Crime Scene Investigations Commanding Officer or Crime Lab Manager, this position is responsible for daily operations of the Latent Fingerprint section of the Forensic Services Division, which entails supervising, scheduling, assigning, training, setting work priorities and conducting performance evaluations of subordinate Forensic Examiners involved in latent fingerprint identification. This position performs and leads others who perform the more difficult and complex cases of fingerprint examination and classification of prints and impressions, and operates all related latent print equipment Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) database of the San Francisco Police Department. All functions are performed in accordance to laws of evidence, criminal procedure, and court procedure and adherence to unit’s code of ethics.

Essential Duties

The essential responsibilities and duties for this position include, but are not limited to, the following below:

          Criminalist III duties:

1. Collects, examines, analyzes, and processes complex evidence, including trace, firearms, impression, biological, fingerprint, digital, and crime scene evidence.
2. Develops, validates, and implements new methods and technologies in the analysis of evidence.
3. Develops and updates written procedures for evidence analysis, data interpretation, case note composition, and maintenance.
4. Reviews requests for forensic services as to the merit, urgency, and scope of the request.
5. Assigns cases based on factors such as available personnel, specialties of personnel and caseload.
6. Conducts administrative and technical reviews of all case files and reports.
7. Develops and implements quality control and safety procedures in the laboratory.
8. Develops a documented evidence control system to ensure the integrity of physical evidence.
9. Establishes and implements a documented program to ensure that instruments and equipment are properly maintained and calibrated.
10. Administers proficiency testing, reviews results, and recommends remedial action as necessary.
11. Presents court testimony as an expert witness concerning conclusions drawn from laboratory examinations and analyses.
12. Researches technical journals, textbooks, and proprietary publications to determine the best methods of performing tests.
13. Ensures current test methodologies satisfy court requirements for validity and admissibility as evidence.
14. Schedules training for staff in the use of highly technical instruments and microscopes.
15. Maintains training and proficiency test records of all subordinates, case examinations and service records for scientific instruments in the laboratory.
16. Prepares written budget requests for presentation to superiors of unit need, including equipment upgrade, staff training or other budget increases.
17. Confers with Inspectors and District Attorneys to discuss case priorities.
18. Serves as an instructor on evidence collection and crime laboratory procedure for Police Academy and for Advanced Officer training courses.
19. Attends professional meetings to maintain communication with other agencies, and to keep abreast of innovations that may be useful to the Unit.

    Latent Print Duties:

1. Supervises the activities of subordinate personnel engaged in latent print examination. Plan, assign and evaluate subordinate personnel to ensure conformance with departmental regulations and policies, and applicable laws and regulations.
2. Develop and review division operating procedures.
3. Prepare section for Accreditation.
4. Oversee the general types of tests and examinations to be performed on physical evidence assigned to unit; conduct difficult and complex tests and examinations using developing powders, inks, chemicals, casting materials, photographic equipment or other special equipment.
5. Collect and transport multiple forms of evidence to and from various locations for forensic evaluation and chain of custody documentation and process evidence according to department procedure.
6. Identify, compare and evaluate latent, visible, plastic, and partial finger, palm, foot, or similar type prints or impressions through various mediums or other special equipment for difficult and complex cases in the department.
7. Encode and input data into SFPD ABIS, CAL-ID AFIS and FBI ULW / NGI fingerprint systems; use system results and printouts to develop probable suspects list and classify fingerprints for facility of retrieval by the different systems users.
8. Oversee the verification of fingerprint identifications made by other latent examiners, and provide guidance, training and technical assistance to personnel that perform the verification of fingerprint identifications; comply with on-going state and federal mandated training of new and experienced personnel; and adhere to industry standards in periodic assessments and validating fingerprint processing.

Perform related duties and responsibilities, as assigned.

How to qualify

To be considered, you must possess the following education and experience:

1. Education: Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited four-year college or university with major course work in criminalistics, chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, or a closely related physical science field. AND

2. Experience: Four years (4) of full-time professional experience working in a laboratory performing duties of a criminalist (equivalent to the City's 8260 Criminalist II). AND

3. License and Certification: Possession of a valid California Driver’s License.

      Substitution:

• Postgraduate degree in biology, chemistry, or forensic science-related area may be substituted for one (1) year of the required full-time professional experience.
• For positions assigned to Latent Prints additional full-time experience as a Latent Print Examiner in public jurisdiction may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis. Thirty (30) semester units or forty-five (45) quarter units equals one year.

Note: One year of full-time employment is equivalent to 2000 hours. (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week.) Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment.

Verification of Education: Applicants are required to submit verification of qualifying education and coursework. Information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements

Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility or disqualification.

What else should I know?

Background Investigation: Prior to employment with the San Francisco Police Department, a thorough background investigation will be conducted to determine the candidate’s suitability for employment. The investigation may include, but not be limited to: criminal history records, driving records, drug/alcohol screening, and other related employment and personal history records. Reasons for rejection may include use of  controlled substances and alcohol, felony conviction, repeated or serious violations of the law, inability to work with co-workers, inability to accept supervision, inability to follow rules and regulations or other relevant factors. Candidates may be required to undergo  drug/alcohol screening, and must clear Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprinting. Criminal records will be carefully reviewed; candidates who do not report their complete criminal records on their applications will be disqualified. Applicants will be fingerprinted.

Recruiter Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the Staff Services analyst, Danny Wan at danny.wan@sfgov.org.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

SFPD Recruitment: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/career

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.