A Look on the Inside: Abilene Crime Lab opens doors to the public
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — The Abilene Crime Laboratory held an open house, inviting the public and students to see what this line of work is really like.
It’s more than sunglasses, rock music, and cheesy one-liners. The reality of what you will find is hard truths, along with testing kits, analysis machines, and fentanyl made to look like vitamins and candy. It’s part of everyday life for forensic scientists, and the Lab Manager for the Abilene Crime Laboratory, Mary Avalos Bell, illustrated what public transparency means to them.
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“Very important because we want to gain that public trust. Let them know that they can rely on what we do here. So, we want to open it up and let them see what we actually do here. Let them see our instrumentation and how they work, and talk to the forensic scientists so they can speak to them about how they do the different analyses,” said Bell.
Forensic Scientist Christopher Cisneros shared how he enjoys these types of public interactions and conversing with individuals who are interested in the subject.
“When they come here, they say, ‘Oh, yes, that’s actually how it works in practice!’ and seeing them kind of engaged in, it really makes it worth it,” said Cisneros.
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There were several different stations that lab techs occupied and instructed from during the open house. Some of the stations included molecular analysis machines, microscopes displaying drug identification traits, and chemical interaction tests that caused a substance to change color to indicate what the drug was being handled. Crisstie Crim, an Instructional Coordinator at the Abilene LIFT school, spoke about how occasions like this aid students in their potential career interests.
“It’s super important for us for our kids to get real-life opportunities and to see what’s happening in the classroom expanded outside the walls of the school. So, this opportunity is really great for our kids to take the learning that they’ve been doing and see how that is applied in real life,” Crim said.
The Abilene Crime Laboratory used to organize open houses once a year in September, coinciding with National Forensic Science Week. But now, to encourage public engagement and participation, they have decided to hold these events in the spring season as well.
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