Fishers Police give inside look of forensics lab and technology

FISHERS, Ind. — The Fishers Police Department has invested in some cutting-edge technology over the years for its Forensic Services Unit.

For example, one of their newest advancements is the Rapid DNA machine.

“90 minutes is all it takes to get a confirmatory hit of whether a suspect was in a vehicle or maybe left some DNA on a window in a burglary,” said Fishers Police Chief Ed Gebhart.

The sample is still sent to state police for traditional testing, but this is data that can put a criminal behind bars within hours instead of weeks.

“The Fishers Police Department is the only agency in the state of Indiana who has this combination of this technology and are actively using this technology together,” said Lt. Jim Hawkins.

Other tools that help assist in their investigations are the M-VAC system, Vacuum Metal Deposition chamber (VMD) and Digital Capture System 5 (DCS 5).

They use this technology on their cases, but also for other agencies that don’t have it. The chief of police said they intend to keep improving their digital arsenal over time.

“Then we bought a wand that helps the investigators use it more, and then we went to the VMD machine,” said Gebhart.

The push for better tech started with the chief’s crime gun initiative, which has removed more than 500 illegal firearms from the streets since 2019.

“What we have found is 90% of the illegal firearms that come into our lab and are processed in our lab, we are able to get fingerprint DNA or even matches back to our known suspects,” said FPD Lt. Jim Hawkins.

Fishers Police said that they’ve been able to bring closure to around 44 families in unknown human remains cases using Rapid DNA and other technology.

“We’ve assisted in closing 18 criminal cases with Rapid DNA, and currently we have 485 suspect standards in just the local Fisher’s DNA, and that grows every day,” said Hawkins.