The Scene of Crime Unit provides a twenty-four hour scene attendance service to the Police and other law enforcement departments in Hong Kong. The service is supplied by a team of Scientific Evidence Officers (SEOs) who, at the grade of Laboratory Specialist Services Officer, are technical staff with many years of experience in the laboratory and who have been further trained specifically as crime scene examiners.

The approach of using laboratory staff for a large number and wide range of crime scene examinations is relatively unusual in forensic laboratories around the world. It has, however, been in operation in Hong Kong for many years and is a system which pays many dividends in terms of quality of scene examination and quality of exhibits recovered from scenes. The laboratory feels that in view of the often transitory and fragile nature of scientific evidential material at crime scenes, it is far better to have that material processed by a qualified and experienced officer with a scientific background.

The SEOs provide a scene examination service for general crime scenes, which means that they go to most types of scenes. However, there are some types of scene examinations which require more specialized training and for which a professional officer's training is better suited. Such scenes include traffic accident reconstruction, vehicle number restoration, fire scene examination, blood spatter interpretation, and drug manufacture. Consequently, scenes falling into any of these categories are dealt with by officers from the appropriate section of the Division. Where necessary, SEOs attend scenes with specialist professional officers.

In 2008, 295 general crimes scenes, 18 scenes involving blood spatter interpretation, 34 fire scenes, 122 traffic accident/vehicle-related scenes, and 12 drug-related scenes, making a total of 481, were attended by the SEOs and specialist chemists.

Certificate of Accreditation (Click to magnify)

The Unit is responsible for maintaining and developing the quality management system of the Forensic Science Division (FSD) of the Laboratory in accordance with the requirements of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors / Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) and other good laboratory practices.

Under the directions of the Divisional Quality Committee, which comprises the Assistant Government Chemist of FSD, the two Chief Chemists of FSD and the Senior Chemist of this Unit (the latter is also designated as the Divisional Quality Manager ), the Unit leads all FSD operational sections in their quality assurance planning, provides them with quality assurance guidelines and monitors the implementation of quality measures. It is responsible for maintaining and updating the quality and training manuals, as well as carrying out quality system reviews and annual quality audits. The audits are led by a team of qualified ASCLD/LAB Inspectors and internal auditors fully trained by the Divisional Quality Manager.

To ensure the provision of highest attainable quality service to clients and to comply with ASCLD/LAB quality requirements, the Unit coordinates the operational sections in their proficiency testing programmes including those at international level with a view to establishing inter-laboratory comparability and traceability.