North Bay Police Service gets new forensic van

The North Bay Police Service unveiled its new fully equipped forensic identification van Wednesday morning.

“This van can be used for any scene that we would be dispatched to, anything from a break and enter to a homicide,” said Const. Kevin Gelinas, a forensics officer with the North Bay Police Service.

“We’ve got all of our equipment in here for crime scene management, evidence collection and anything we could possibly need … It’s been a great addition to bolster the capabilities of the unit.”

The van was made possible through a partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police.

“We’ve outfitted this van the same way the OPP outfits their vans, because we work very closely with them,” said Gelinas.

“We work out of their office space and their laboratory, so we have outfitted ours to match theirs to bring us up to that level.”

Police Chief Scott Tod told CTV News his staff is lucky to have a state-of-the-art vehicle, something not all police services have.

“It provides them a safe place to work in, regardless of the weather conditions,” he said.

“There’s a number of factors that it provides in their workspace, too, and it also (aligned) with what we try to do with our partnership with the OPP, in adopting many of the practices that they have in terms of forensic identification.”