Meet the Scientific Police Laboratory
Central Unit of specialized technical-scientific support of the Polícia Judiciária
Scientific Police Laboratory (LPC)
It has technical and scientific autonomy, focusing on impartiality and respect by well-established and validated procedures. Complies with the requisites for Testing Laboratories, established in the Portuguese Standard NP EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 being accredited by the National Accreditation Body (IPAC).
Since his beginning always had a strong commitment to international cooperation being one of the founding members of the European Network of Forensic Science (ENFSI).
Alexandra André
The LPC Director
Message from the Director
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DNA
The Biology and DNA Unit of the Portuguese Forensic Laboratory of Polícia Judiciária is the responsible for this organization of this year's edition of the most important annual meeting of the European Forensic DNA community.
We have a dedicated team of 14 highly qualified experts, with many years of experience, and a modern and completely automated laboratory.
With a diversified scope of action, supports criminal investigation in cases of murder, criminal association, terrorism, sex assaults, trafficking of human beings and others, receiving requests from Polícia Judiciária and Judicial Authorities.
The expertise of this Unit is focused on search, identification and collection of biological traces, as well as DNA analysis of these traces for human identification purposes. Kinship analysis in criminal proceedings is another aspect of the work as well as contribution to the national DNA database, being responsible for 90% of the casework samples introduced.
Beside the expert activity, the Biology and DNA Unit has strengthened in recent years the relationship with the academic world by increasing the participating in direct training actions or accepting master’s degrees students.
Maintains as always, its commitment to international collaboration, either through participation in associations and specialized working groups or in participation of projects in the field of forensic science.
The Forensic Science Laboratory’s expertise fall within the fields of forensic science, where its theoretical and practical knowledge is required for the search, detection, collection, transportation and laboratory analysis of all kind of traces. To perform these tasks, beside the Biology and DNA Unit, LPC also has the following Units:
We have a dedicated team of 14 highly qualified experts, with many years of experience, and a modern and completely automated laboratory.
With a diversified scope of action, supports criminal investigation in cases of murder, criminal association, terrorism, sex assaults, trafficking of human beings and others, receiving requests from Polícia Judiciária and Judicial Authorities.
The expertise of this Unit is focused on search, identification and collection of biological traces, as well as DNA analysis of these traces for human identification purposes. Kinship analysis in criminal proceedings is another aspect of the work as well as contribution to the national DNA database, being responsible for 90% of the casework samples introduced.
Beside the expert activity, the Biology and DNA Unit has strengthened in recent years the relationship with the academic world by increasing the participating in direct training actions or accepting master’s degrees students.
Maintains as always, its commitment to international collaboration, either through participation in associations and specialized working groups or in participation of projects in the field of forensic science.
The Forensic Science Laboratory’s expertise fall within the fields of forensic science, where its theoretical and practical knowledge is required for the search, detection, collection, transportation and laboratory analysis of all kind of traces. To perform these tasks, beside the Biology and DNA Unit, LPC also has the following Units:
Drugs and toxicology
The Drugs and Toxicology Unit is responsible for the detection, identification and quantification of chemical substances considered toxic for living beings. Their performance is divided in two groups of action: Drugs of Abuse (and related products) and the other toxic substances. When necessary participates in the identification and dismantling of clandestine laboratories or production units.
Documents
The Documents Unit aims at determining whether a document is authentic or forged, and at establishing a connection between a specific material and its production.
Currency Counterfeit
The Currency Counterfeit Unit determines the authenticity or forgery of banknotes and coins by comparison with specimens. This group represents the LPC in the European Central Bank and the European Commission, in their respective Working Groups on banknotes and coins.
Currency Counterfeit
The Currency Counterfeit Unit determines the authenticity or forgery of banknotes and coins by comparison with specimens. This group represents the LPC in the European Central Bank and the European Commission, in their respective Working Groups on banknotes and coins.
Handwriting
The Handwriting Unit ascertains the authenticity or forgery of signatures and determines the authorship of handwritten texts by comparison with known writings.
Handwriting
The Handwriting Unit ascertains the authenticity or forgery of signatures and determines the authorship of handwritten texts by comparison with known writings.
Physics and Chemistry
The Physics and Chemistry Unit analyse about twenty different types of traces such as fibres, glass, paint and explosives, having for this end more than a dozen different analytical techniques installed. This Unit also performs GSR, Speech, and Audio analyses.
Crime Scene
The Crime Scene Unit is responsible for applying a set of procedures and methodologies to evaluate and interpret the crime scene in order to collect all existing traces, maintaining the chain of custody of the evidence.
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The Crime Scene Unit is responsible for applying a set of procedures and methodologies to evaluate and interpret the crime scene in order to collect all existing traces, maintaining the chain of custody of the evidence.
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The Crime Scene Unit is responsible for applying a set of procedures and methodologies to evaluate and interpret the crime scene in order to collect all existing traces, maintaining the chain of custody of the evidence.
Fingerprint
The Fingerprint Unit gathers all expert activities that seek human identification through the collection and analysis of fingerprints, palm prints and others impression elements. They manage the AFIS national database and are the contact point for Prüm Decisions in terms of fingerprints.
Fingerprint
The Fingerprint Unit gathers all expert activities that seek human identification through the collection and analysis of fingerprints, palm prints and others impression elements. They manage the AFIS national database and are the contact point for Prüm Decisions in terms of fingerprints.
Ballistics
The Ballistics Unit provides all expert responses related to firearms, ammunition and ammunition elements, as well as determination of rifle firing distance. They manage IBIS TRAX 3D database system and are the Portuguese representative of INTERPOL’s IBIN.
Tool Marks
The Tool Marks Unit has specific competences in the analysis of traces of footwear, tyres, gloves and tool marks as well as in the restoration of references and serial numbers obliterated in weapons, vehicles or other metal objects.