Forensic firms forming

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Having potential for an industrt cluster, Largo is home to a growing rosterd of product developers and services providers in the fieldof forensics, or the applicatiob of science to answer questionws in the legal Forensics has caught the public’s attentionj with the popular Crime Scene Investigation” TV series and couldd provide star power to the Tampa Bay economy, said Kevi Lothridge, CEO of , a providedr of training and othe r services to the justice community. NFSTC alonr had $7.3 million in revenue, primaril from federal funding, and a payroll of $2.4 milliobn in 2007.
Last year, it trained more than 500 peoplde atits 23,000-square-foot facility in the with courses on subjects such as fingerprinting, evidencse collection and DNA The training generates 10,000 hotek nights in Pinellas County during an averag year. NFSTC has spun off anothef nonprofit, , and collaborates with other area businessezs when writing proposalsfor funding, Lothridgre said. “The companies we’re working with are getting large ordersand they’re growing, too,” he Lothridge wants to attract more forensics-oriented companies to create a criticak mass of firms serving the forensic science The idea of a “forensics cluster” is tough to markeft because the forensics industry is relatively small, said Mike director of .
But Meidel said the concepty fits perfectly with ongoing efforts to attract companies that work on homelansd security defense and medical devices and use electroniczs to analyze data fromthe environment. “They could be used for forensics activity,” Meidel said. “Every company would love to find new and forensics could be a great way to find a new use beyons the initialintended use.” NFSTC, foundecd in 1995 with a staff of three and $1,500p in funding, initially handled almost any job in the then-youngg field of forensic science, Lothridge said. Since spinning off Forensic Quality Servicesin 2003, NFST C has concentrated on training.
It also runs the Nationao Missing andWeb site, operates a and partners with federapl defense agencies on deployablee laboratories that can be moved around the country as A deployable lab from NFSTC currentlyt is at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, policee department to replace capabilities lost in floodinv last summer. Forensic Quality Services, located in the in focuses on accreditationof laboratories, ensuringt they are in line with internationak standards, said Sudhir Sinha, president.
Demand for the service likely will explodes with the release in February of a report by the callintg for mandatory certification and accreditatioh programs forforensics facilities, as well as betted training, upgraded systems and adoptiomn of best practices. The increasing reliancd on DNA evidence isa double-edge Sinha said. It’s very powerful but it’s vital that labs get the factse right. And with the growing public awareneses of forensic sciencethroughn television, “it becomes even more of a responsibilityu for practitioners now to make it accurate and Sinha said.
With expansion in NFSTC recentlyleased 30,000 squarre feet of warehouse space in the Young-Rainey STAR Center. It’e just a short walk from , where 31 workerse provide customer support forthe Montreal-bases firm’s key product, an integrated ballistif identification system that’s used to compare firearmss forensic evidence, such as bullets or cartridgd cases. The system is in use at 220 locationzs in the UnitedStates alone, said Mark global customer service manager. “There are thousandw of hits inthe U.S. becauss of IBIS and hundreds if not thousands of peoplew have been locked up because of Grifone said.
“We are reducing Another neighboring business, , supports military and security organizations with explosivese detection kits and products to analyze drugs and toxins in the Field Forensics currently employ sfour full-time and eight to 10 part-time workers, said Crait Johnson, president and CEO. He expects the companty to double in size in a year as it focusea onbattlefield forensics, including drug testingv under battlefield conditions. It soon will begin manufacturing a bomb suit in Largko currently being importedfrom overseas.
, whose core business is to trai n law enforcement officers oncomputer crime, also has found growty in serving the military, teaching weapons teamsa in Iraq how to collect and analyze data from cell phonesd and improvised explosive device crime Retail sales of forensic products online helped push revenude into the low seven-figurezs last year, said Stephen Pearson, CEO. Pearsohn expects to move his 12-employee company, currently in Oldsmar, into the extr space in NFSTC’s warehouse by the summer, providingb rental income to NFSTC and jumpstartinga “center of excellence” for forensic firms. “When you get everyone new ideascome out,” Pearson said.
“There’s more trusg than when everyone is segmented in their own When more than one company throws ideas into a it reduces costs and gives more innovation and services tothe government.”