Are the majority of real-life CSIs sworn police officers or civilians?

Question

Also, would civilian CSIs ever carry a gun in the field? Thanks!

Answer 1

In our department we have mostly police officers doing forensic work, but we recently hired a couple of civilians to do the job as well. The civilians are sworn in as "special constables" so that they can execute search warrants, but they do not carry guns. They do not go into any dangerous situations, do not conduct interviews or investigate leads and do not respond to any other kinds of calls.

I am in a medium sized city in Ontario, Canada.

Answer 2

CSI crime scene people are police and carry a weapon, but most of the lab workers are civil servants. CSI also do not interview suspects/witnesses or carry out investigaton other than forensics, it's not at all like the show.

Answer 3

In L.A. they are civilians, they don't carry guns, and they don't do follow-up investigations unless the homicide detectives call them back to the scene. They collect evidence, take it back to the lab and process it, and advise the detectives of their findings.
It's not very glamorous or exciting. But it pays well. Our CSI's have to have a master's degree to process evidence, and I think a B.S. to collect evidence.

Answer 4

Most crime lab people are all civillians, and do not carry guns. Most crime tech people who collect evedience are civillians and they do not carry guns.

Most of the people who actually investigate crimes are police officers, Normally the detectives.

And in most dept, the police officers do all of the work, collect all the evidence and merely mail it to the state crime lab.

Answer 5

Most are sworn officers doing addition to regular duty.

Answer 6

i think the combinations, and also depends on the which department any one has to work.