ON THE RECORD/TV’s CSI: Miami is dead wrong

The television drama series “CSI: Miami” was rated number three in the Dec. 24, 2003, Nielsen ratings, preceded only by “Monday Night Football” and its sister series “CSI.” The crime series follows the fictional adventures of the Miami-Dade County, Fla., Police Department’s (MDPD) Crime Scene Investigation Bureau through the gory details of police work. The actual bureau consists of multiple units and 102 personnel working to provide crime scene processing, fingerprint identification and forensic imaging. Despite the show’s popularity, Police Sergeant Stephen Miller, who works for the bureau, says it wonderfully misrepresents reality.

Q: The show portrays the CSI Bureau as being made up of a tight-knit group of a very few high-tech Sherlock Holmes-like investigators. How do the personnel at Miami-Dade’s bureau differ in reality?

Miller: This area is probably the only one that even comes close to reality.The 29 police officers assigned to the MDPD Crime Scene Investigations Bureau are a highly trained group of people who are, in fact, a fairly cohesive unit.

Q: Approximately how many crime scenes does the bureau investigate annually (murder or otherwise)?

A: [According to 2003 statistics] the major crimes unit handled 1,790 major crime scenes, including 118 homicides, 122 rapes, 110 suicides, 325 deaths, 21 police-involved shootings, 784 robberies, 49 narcotics cases, five kidnappings and 91 shootings.

Q: Considering that so many local governments have strapped budgets right now, how much technology is Miami-Dade able to invest in? The show portrays technology as almost overabundant.

A: The technology in the forensic field is changing rapidly.The MDPD invests millions of dollars each year in an effort to keep pace, especially in DNA processing techniques. However, budget restraints are a reality, and the technology portrayed on TV is often a far cry from what is available. [The TV version of technology] either does not even exist or is portrayed in a very distorted manner.

Q: What is most realistic about the show in your opinion? And, what is most unrealistic?

A: The TV version of crime scene investigations is totally based on Hollywood script writers and has little, if any, basis in fact.The writers for “CSI: Miami” have personally interviewed me at great length regarding how crime scenes are processed.It is, in fact, a lengthy, methodical, painstaking and often tedious process that is not suitable for a television audience.Therefore, the Hollywood version is much more interesting.“Real” CSI personnel do not interview people, make arrests or drive Hummers.

Q: Do your personnel watch the show?

A: There are very few [that watch the show]; they watch it purely for comic relief.

Q: Has the show had any effect on recruiting for the bureau?

A: The MDPD constantly receives information requests for [how to become a CSI] from people who are fascinated with the TV show.Most have no clue that you must be a uniformed police officer first, often for many years.They expect to be hired immediately to do what they see on TV!