Re: CSI demystified! - CSI

>Are CSIs civilians? Field investigators too? Or do they carry badges? Is the
situation the same across states?

A: In some states, the crime lab analysts are sworn law enforcement officers
- in a word, badge-carrying, gun-totin' police officers. That's true in
Oklahoma, for example, and I think also in Colorado. In Texas and California,
most of the crime lab analysts are *not* sworn police officers - they're
civilians, so no badges other than our ID cards. Regarding field
investigations, we do occasionally do these. The ones I have participated in
involved so-called clandestine laboratories - illegal drug manufacturing
labs. Here in Texas, it's illegal to sell/buy most chemical glassware without
a state permit, so the labs usually made do with equipment improvised from
pyrex mixing bowls, measuring cups, hot plates, etc. In California I don't
think they have that restriction, right? So the CSI types there could see
more sophisticated setups that might look more like a traditional
chemistry lab. Still, by and large the crooks are *not* chemists - the
recipes and techniques are passed around via the prison and criminal
underground, so generally they don't really have any grasp of the science.
(That's not always true - there was a case of a self-educated chemist in the
Midwest that was making fentanyl in an old abandoned ICBM missile silo. He
had to have quite a sophisticated setup, since the drug is some 10x stronger
than heroin - fatal in sub-milligram amounts, and this guy was making
kilograms of the stuff!) Their lack of knowledge is the reason a fair number
of clandestine chemists end up dead; the ones that live often come down with
strange cancers later in their lives. One common method for making
methamphetamine uses red phosphorus - but a small change in the reaction
conditions can also produce the deadly gas phosphine. There are books
available that supposedly show you how to synthesize nerve gases - but *I*
sure wouldn't want to try it in a clandestine lab setting - nor even in a
well-equipped lab with fully functional fume hoods!

CSI是平民亦或也有調查員的身分？他們也佩帶警徽嗎？全美是否都相同？

在某些州如奧克拉荷馬，CSI是有宣示過的執法人員，換句話說就是有警徽，
有配槍的警員。我想科羅拉多州也是這樣。以德州以及加州來講，大部分的
分析員都不是值法人員而是平民，所以他們沒有警徽，也使用不同的識別證。
關於犯罪現場的調查，我們有時也會參與。我有參加過調查地下製毒廠的工作，
在德州，大部分化學器皿的買賣是需要核准證的，所以大部分的的製毒廠是
將就的使用派熱克斯玻璃制的混合皿、量杯、爐子這類的器材。加州並沒有
這項規定，所以當地的CSI可以看見較複雜，接近傳統化學實驗室的製毒廠。
雖然如此，大部分的藥頭並不是化學家，他們的配方還有煉製技巧是從地下
或是監獄中學來的，所以他們其實對科學一竅不通。〈還是有例外的。曾經
有一個自修的化學家在中西部的一個廢棄洲際飛彈發射井煉製芬太奴。我們
知道他的設備很不錯，因為他煉出來的毒品比古柯鹼還強十倍，不用一毫克
就可以致命了。而這傢伙煉的量是以公斤來算的！〉
知識的缺乏造成大部份這些地下化學家的死亡，而活下來的也常被檢查出患
有怪異的癌症。
常見的脫氧麻黃鹼煉製方法之一是使用紅磷，但化學反應過程中，只要環境
有少量的變化，它會產生致命的磷化氫氣體。可能市面上有書可以教你合成
神經毒氣，但我絕對不會想在地下工廠製作它；就算是配備完整，有排氣櫃
的實驗室也一樣！

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