Demand for scientific methods of detecting crimes and criminals, i.e. the beginnings of forensic science in the structures of the Polish State Police

Abstract

The history of forensic science (from Latin criminalis, concerning a crime) is inextricably linked to the history of law enforcement agencies. This science grew out of the needs of the law and serves its implementation to this day. Its interest is focused on the crime in concreto. As an independent scientific discipline, it developed only at the end of the 19th century and was connected with the date of publication of the work Handbuch fur Untersuchungsrichter, Polizeibeamte, Gendarmen u.s.w. by the Austrian investigating judge H. Gross in 1893. Its author noticed the correctness (very accurate) that every achievement in the field of natural sciences and technical sciences can serve the purpose of combating crime. W. Sobolewski is considered a precursor of Polish forensic science. In September 1919 he joined the State Police and started working as an inspection officer. Then he became the commander of the Main Police School and Officer School in Warsaw. In 1929 he was sent to Vienna for a forensic course. Then W. Sobolewski headed the Police Laboratory at the Headquarters of the Investigation Service in Warsaw, and since 1931 the Department of Investigation Technology, in which, at the request of the court, police authorities and military institutions, forensic expert opinions were carried out, including dactyloscopic, weapons and handwriting. They were of great evidential importance for the courts. It continues to be so today. Beginning in the interwar period, the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Police is a research institute recognized in Poland and abroad, which carries out tasks in the field of technical and criminal protection of the process of preventing and combating crime, among others, by performing research and implementation, comparative and expert work in the field of forensic science.