Spring Break
Chemist synthesizes tools, experience
Jenna Perez, Staff Writer
Issue date: 9/12/03 Section: News
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John Drugan, senior forensic chemist with the Arson and Explosives Unit of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, hosted a forensic science seminar last night in Pastore Chemical Laboratory.
The crime lab is a renovated schoolhouse located in Sudbury, Mass. and opened in 1995.
Drugan has been with the crime lab for 19 years and has worked in drug companies and with traces of evidence. He has a degree in chemistry and has worked on about 100 crime scenes, including rapes, stabbings and shootings.
"Forensic science is the application of the natural sciences to matters of law," Drugan said. Drugan explained the different units of the crime lab as well.
The different units include the office of alcohol testing, the forensic toxicology unit, the drug analysis unit, the criminalistics unit, a clandestine drug lab, a ballistics unit, an arson and explosives unit and a DNA unit.
"We handled about 3,500 cases in ballistics and about 500 in toxicology," Drugan said. The crime lab also trains people in identification of ignitable fluids and explosives.
"Everyone who works at the lab goes to the criminalistics unit," Drugan said. The criminalistics unit is where investigators respond to crime scenes, examine things such as clothes, weapons, bedding and cars. They also do identification traces of blood, semen, saliva, hairs and fibers, paints, glass and metals.
The investigators respond to all crime scenes in Massachusetts, except for Boston, which has its own crime lab. They are also on call 24 hours per day and ballistics, the investigators who study firearms and ammunition, will respond when needed as well. "We have sworn personnel who do ballistics," Drugan said.
The Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services employ people who are experts in certain fields, such as photography, latent fingerprints, footwear and tire marks and other special skills. The lab has an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which is a machine that matches fingerprints so investigators can find criminals.
The arson and explosives unit is also important in the crime lab. They receive debris from all fires and explosives and find such things as acid and pipe bombs. The unit is also equipped with SEM/EDAX equipment, which is used for analysis of common low explosives and unknown substances.
"I wanted to be an environmental chemist," Drugan said. "I found out about forensics my junior year in college."
Drugan said that the lab has never lost or mixed up any evidence during his time at the lab. "We have found out a lot that is not in the media," Drugan said. According to Drugan, he does not find the crime rates to be decreasing, the rape rates have stayed the same and he has found the fire rates to be increasing.
