<Li> Forensic Document Examiner </Li> <P> In the United States, crime labs may be publicly or privately operated, although private laboratories typically do not respond to crime scenes to collect evidence . Public crime labs are organized at the city, county, state, or national level . A law enforcement agency that does not operate its own crime lab usually has free access to a higher level laboratory for analysis of their evidence . Most states have their own crime labs, for instance Oklahoma has the OSBI, many other places have smaller yet still sufficient crime labs . </P> <P> The Los Angeles Police Department founded the first crime laboratory in the United States (1923), followed by the Bureau of Investigation (1926), forerunner to the Federal Bureau of Investigation . (Every Contact Leaves a Trace, Connie Fletcher, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2006, interview with crime lab director) </P> <P> The term "crime lab" has become a part of popular culture, largely due to the TV dramas . Some of the more famous shows are: </P>

Where was the first police laboratory established in the us