Work starts on Thames valley Police forensics centre
The state-of-the-art building will be ready in early 2025
Last updated 11th Aug 2023
A ground breaking ceremony has taken place to mark teh start of work on a new forensics centre for Thames Valley Police.
The centre - in Bicester - will bring together the force's forensic experts under one roof.
Work will be completed in early 2025.
The purpose-built centre in Bicester will become the main forensics hub for the force, containing laboratories, new digital technologies and dedicated training facilities.
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber said:
“In a world of rapidly advancing technology, ensuring the police stay on the cutting edge of forensics is crucial to keeping the public safe.
“Whether crimes such as burglaries, sexual offences or digital crimes the police need to get ahead of the criminals."
Other key elements of the Forensic Improvement Programme include:
Investment in new front-line digital forensic tools and systems to give investigating officers better and faster access to digital evidence.
Adoption of new technologies to speed up the examination of evidence and management of cases, to reduce the impact on victims and witnesses.
Improving CSI Hubs, to enhance the force’s crime scene investigation capacity and capability.
Additional resources to support forensic accreditation, assuring the legitimacy of police evidence.
Recruitment of additional forensic staff across the Forensic Investigation Unit to provide a better service at the point of need.
Kay Hannam, Head of Forensic Services at Thames Valley Police, said:
“Forensic science can be the key to an investigation, in getting a case to court and delivering a timely outcome for the victim.
“Underpinning this programme of growth is our proposed new purpose built accommodation that will bring specialisms together under one roof. Here we will have the flexibility to expand our services to meet existing and future demand.
“This will be particularly important in areas such as digital forensics where we are seeing significant increases in demand and complexity year on year."