Forensic officers based at the Ballarat forensic hub are increasingly employing their skills to assist the region's investigators, leading to quicker suspect identification and arrests for serious offences.

The Ballarat forensic hub opened its doors almost two years ago in May 2019. At the same time, a second regional hub was also established in Morwell.

Building on Victoria Police's existing forensic testing capabilities in Macleod, north east of Melbourne, the multi-disciplinary hubs offer an extensive range of forensic testing services for regional police.

The Ballarat hub services the force's western region, which includes Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh as well as up to Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton, Horsham, Stawell, and Ararat. It also processes items requested by investigators in Geelong, Colac, and Maryborough.

The Morwell hub, meanwhile, services the eastern region, including East Gippsland, Latrobe, Baw Baw and the Bass Coast.

Executive Director of the Forensic Services Department, Dr Rebecca Kogios, explained that a multi-disciplinary hub was a facility which brought together forensic experts from a number of different disciplines.

There are 14 people based at the Ballarat hub, including forensic specialists who offer a "comprehensive range of forensic testing services" for investigators working in the region.

The experts have a range of diverse specialities, including biological, chemical, digital, botanical and forensic fingerprint analysis.

As well as the forensic officers, there is also a police member, support staff member and security personnel based at the hub too.

After a caseworker or administerial staff member receives an item from the police investigator, forensic officers begin their examination.

Erin Phillips, who first worked at MacLeod, has been a forensic officer at the Ballarat hub since before it opened.

She said that when they first receive the item, officers view it as a whole, rather than from one particular angle, and identify what can be forensically obtained.

This is part of an approach centred around multi-disciplinary evidence recovery, which means staff are trained to identify and extract a range of different types of forensic evidence from a range of different evidence types.

From there, the officers work to extract a range of different types of evidence - meaning they gain a complete picture of the evidence and can even determine how a crime occurred.

With the aim to recover the maximum amount of evidence from each item, scientific tests are coordinated and streamlined according to their differing processing times. This has significantly sped up the time it takes to extract key evidence.

In one recent example, a glove connected to a burglary was submitted to the Ballarat forensic hub. The investigator had requested a DNA examination of the glove and while collecting the DNA sample, the multi-skilled examiner observed a latent fingerprint.

This print identified a suspect who was not being considered in the investigation and led to their arrest and charges being laid before the DNA result had been returned from the lab.

During the past two years the Ballarat and Morwell forensic hubs have processed almost 17,500 items, equating to about 24 pieces of potential evidence each day across the two regional facilities.

Since opening, the Ballarat forensic hub has processed 8664 items, with the majority being examined or analysed at the hub.

It has received and examined 2,531 items associated with regional crime (includes multiple examinations) and received and transported a further 2,371 items associated with complex regional crimes to Macleod for different types of forensic examination.

It has also received 3,762 items from Macleod to help manage demand.

Arguably the biggest benefit of the regional hubs for investigators based in the regions is that they no longer need to spend hours transporting evidence down to the Forensic Services Centre in Melbourne.

While there was some fingerprint expertise in Ballarat prior to the forensic hub opening, most of the major forensic services operated out of the single facility in metropolitan Melbourne.

This meant that forensic evidence needed to be seized, bagged and transported to Melbourne for analysis, along with plenty of paperwork, so the time between collecting the item from the crime scene and delivering it for forensic analysis was much longer.

This has now been greatly reduced, especially for police in the Ballarat region, who are only a short drive away.

It is estimated that police have been spared from travelling an estimated 113,000 kilometres, or the equivalent of 205 trips between Mildura and Macleod, since the regional hubs became operational.

This equates to about 1230 policing hours or 51 around-the-clock days of frontline policing returned to the community and investigations.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Paul Allen, from Ballarat's Criminal Investigation Unit, said the hub was helping investigators solve serious crimes - from burglaries and thefts to drug trafficking.

Recently the unit investigated a serious assault at Bannockburn and a number of items were seized from the crime scene.

Prior to the Ballarat hub becoming operational, delivering the items to Melbourne and then travelling back to the region would have taken a substantial amount of time. But with the hub now on their doorstep, the remainder of the day was free to dedicate to the investigation.

"We were able to bag the exhibits up, take them to the [Ballarat] hub, get them lodged and on the same day carry on down to Bannockburn and spend at least five hours down there making further enquiries," he said.

"It turned a two day job into a one day job, so it is much more efficient."

The regional hubs have contributed to a much more rapid turnaround in evidence recovery. Dr Kogios said the total processing time had reduced by about 50 per cent, which ultimately meant police investigations were being fast tracked - from the arrest to charges being laid.

It has also led to a speedier resolution when the case reaches the court system.

A fingerprint was extracted off the exhibit in the Bannockburn case, which was then able to be used to corroborate the witness statements. This served to hasten the court process.

Frequently court cases have been held up in the past as the court awaited forensics results for cases to proceed and the accused to submit their plea, but the Ballarat hub has cut this time significantly.

"By being able to access that more immediate forensic service, police are getting information back more quickly to help them detect and apprehend criminals before they commit further offences," Dr Kogios said.

"That is a significant community safety benefit, in terms of being able to solve crime but also potentially preventing and disrupting crime."

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Allen said the third advantage of having the hub on the division's doorstep was that more exhibits were being lodged.

Ballarat investigators are submitting potential evidence about a range of crimes - from items left at the scenes of burglaries to thefts and criminal damage.

They are also submitting items from crime scene analysis from serious armed robberies and aggravated burglaries to larger volume commercial type drug trafficking.

While the data is still being analysed, especially in relation to the pandemic, there has also been a marked increase in the number of items connected to regional crimes being submitted for analysis across the board.

Dr Kogios said meeting a previously unmet demand for forensics in regional Victoria was one of the initial anticipated benefits of opening the hubs.

About two years since opening its doors, the region's investigators and forensic experts are continuing to strengthen their relationships, with many now on a first name basis.

"We see better community safety outcomes as a result of that close relationship," Dr Kogios said.

"We're very proud of that innovative work that they're doing. The ongoing success of the hubs is really largely down to the strong leadership that we have at the hubs and the strong collegiate, professional sort of atmosphere that has been created within the teams that are working in the two hubs."

Dr Kogios said the service delivery model of the forensic services department was consistently being reviewed.

"The needs of a contemporary law enforcement organisation are always changing so it's fair to say that we're constantly looking for ways to refine, improve and mature our scientific service delivery model and specific scientific capabilities as well."

Ms Phillips looks forward to being part of the evolution of the hub and potentially learning new forensic disciplines down the track, while continuing to work with other forensic officers to "perform our role to the best of our abilities across all of Victoria".

Dr Kogios said the regional hubs were "leading the way" in terms of the multi-disciplinary evidence approach.