Evidence technician vs forensic science examiner

The differences between evidence technicians and forensic science examiners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an evidence technician and a forensic science examiner. Additionally, a forensic science examiner has an average salary of $55,410, which is higher than the $44,213 average annual salary of an evidence technician.

Evidence technician vs forensic science examiner overview

	Evidence Technician	Forensic Science Examiner
Yearly salary	$44,213	$55,410
Hourly rate	$21.26	$26.64
Growth rate	11%	11%
Number of jobs	5,316	7,275
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 54%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	38	38
Years of experience	4	4

Evidence technician vs forensic science examiner salary

Evidence technicians and forensic science examiners have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Evidence Technician	Forensic Science Examiner
Average salary	$44,213	$55,410
Salary range	Between $31,000 And $61,000	Between $26,000 And $116,000
Highest paying City	West Valley City, UT	-
Highest paying state	Alaska	-
Best paying company	Federal Bureau of Investigation	-
Best paying industry	Government	-

Differences between evidence technician and forensic science examiner education

There are a few differences between an evidence technician and a forensic science examiner in terms of educational background:

	Evidence Technician	Forensic Science Examiner
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 54%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Criminal Justice
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Pennsylvania

Evidence technician vs forensic science examiner demographics

Here are the differences between evidence technicians' and forensic science examiners' demographics:

	Evidence Technician	Forensic Science Examiner
Average age	38	38
Gender ratio	Male, 47.0% Female, 53.0%	Male, 30.4% Female, 69.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%	Black or African American, 6.8% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 11.4% White, 62.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between evidence technician and forensic science examiner duties and responsibilities

Evidence technician example responsibilities.

Monitor the CCTV cameras, parking lot, and front entrance.
Use of LIMS to assign unique tracking case numbers to submit specimens.
Liaisoned and coordinate efforts with DIA, FBI, SAIC Intel, and military personnel.
Act as main liaison with the software development team for new LIMS features, as well as a mobile mass-disaster LIMS.
Increase customer satisfaction by validating a more sensitive extraction method which produce more informative results.
Perform liquid/liquid and liquid solid chemical extractions, following standard operating procedures.

Forensic science examiner example responsibilities.

Examine firearms for the presence of blood and touch DNA.
Examine evidence hard drives and other media devices with FTK following chain-of-custody procedures for manual processing procedures.
Direct employees in the unit to switch among functions depending on the work counts within the IAFIS.

Evidence technician vs forensic science examiner skills

Common evidence technician skills

Law Enforcement Agencies, 15%
Criminal Justice, 15%
Data Entry, 10%
Crime Lab, 8%
NCIC, 6%
Evidence Collection, 4%

Common forensic science examiner skills

Evidence Technician vs. similar jobs

Evidence Technician related careers

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Evidence Technician
Evidence Technician vs Forensic Science Examiner

Updated January 8, 2025

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