The chapter begins with an overview of the historical development of crime-scene examination. This is followed with information on the staffing of scientific support units across the police services in England and Wales. The chapter then examines the four main areas in which scientific support operations have on impact on the productivity of individual officers and investigative units overall. These are in the areas of deployment (attendance of forensic examiners at crime scenes); effective performance management (supervisory control at all stages of the process); the effective use of technology; and investigative skills. Currently in the United Kingdom, forensic science is not viewed as a key component of the investigation of the high-volume crimes of burglary and thefts related to motor vehicles. The challenge for policing is to incorporate forensic science personnel and procedures into a higher percentage of such cases; however, given the large number of such crimes, this raises the issues of funding for such resource deployment and the development of criteria for prioritizing the cases in which various forensic science resources will be deployed. 4 tables, 5 figures, and 17 references