GREENSBORO N.C. (WXII) - The Greensboro Police Department's Forensic Services Division was ranked one of the best in the world, and was recognized with the 2025 Foresight Maximus Award.
The Foresight Maximus Award is an international distinction given to the top 15 top-performing forensic science laboratories worldwide.
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The Greensboro lab is one of the most efficient in the world at solving whatever case is thrown their way. They respond to a variety of incidents including recovering stolen vehicles to sexual assault, and homicide cases.
Laboratories must run at 90% or greater peak operational efficiency in three distinct areas to receive the award:
Workload: Tracks how much work comes in, how many pieces of evidence are tested, how many cases are waiting for evaluation, and how fast results are sent out.
Staffing: This looks at how many employees work at the lab and exactly where they are assigned to make sure people are working on the right tasks.
Financial Information: This checks how much the lab spends on everything, from equipment to electricity. They compare the budget to other labs in the area to see if they are using their money wisely.
"We are supposed to be the ones that see the things that other people don't see," said Leslie Kopik, the deputy director of forensic sciences. "That's why we spend so much time in crime scenes looking for the smallest bit of evidence: fiber, hair, touch DNA, latent fingerprints. Sometimes it's just the one item that's going to make a difference in a case.