Dr Phil Harrison, B Tech (Hons), PhD

Phil worked in the Forensic Science Service for over 30 years until his retirement in 2005. He was a scene and court going officer for virtually all of these years and worked on many major investigations involving all types of crime including the investigation of a major fire in Grenada on behalf of the British Government.

He has written a number of technical papers, particularly on the interpretation of glass evidence and was responsible for the preparation of Quality Management Procedures in glass examination and fire investigation. Having managed a team of 8-10 scientists for a number of years he took up the post of Operations Manager for Volume Crime at the Wetherby Laboratory in 1999. This involved line managing a unit of over 30 Chemistry and Biology Reporting Officers but he continued to do some casework and in particular continued his role as the head of the Fire Examination Team – an area in which he had specialised since returning to the Service after a two year spell working for R B Hawkins & Associates.

Since retirement he has remained active in Forensic Science and been involved in a number of Defence related cases. In addition, as a part time lecturer he was responsible for helping to set up the Forensic Chemistry Module of the MSc Course in Forensic Science at the University of Teesside. He has also continued to act as Lead Scientist on Fire Investigation Courses run by the Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh and has been involved in running the course in Malaysia and Iran.

Areas of expertise include:-

• Fire and explosion (vapour) investigation.
• The interpretation of glass evidence.
• The examination of footwear/tyre marks
• Paint and miscellaneous building materials.
• Assessment of physical damage including static and dynamic toolmarks.
• Assessment of the significance of findings within the context of a case and the presentation of written and oral evidence for Civil and Criminal Courts

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