Steve Gardner — Instructor Profile

About Steve Gardner

Steve has over 36 years of law enforcement and investigation experience in the Southern California area, which he leverages on a daily basis to bring positive results to the most difficult cases. He uses his forensic and high-tech training in the investigation of crimes that include homicides, assaults, thefts, child exploitation, and computer crimes. He uses his proven leadership skills to motivate and manage a team of forensic professionals at the police department of the 10th largest city in the State of California.

Steve utilizes his education and experience to provide crime scene, evidence processing, latent fingerprint comparison and photography training to law enforcement professionals and students.

Steve is an IAI Certified Latent Print Examiner; has a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Criminal Justice; a Master's degree in Public Administration; is a licensed California Private Investigator (lic#: 28122) and an FAA part 107 licensed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) Pilot. Steve has completed over 1325 hours of formal instruction in crime scene and forensic investigation from institutions such as the FBI, California Dept of Justice, Orange County Sheriff's Department, and the International Association for Identification, among others. He has also completed over 375 hours of formal education in high-tech forensic investigations from institutions such as the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ), Guidance Software, Paraben Corporation, High Tech Crime Investigators Association (HTCIA), and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

Steve recently developed and launched SmartCompare latent print comparison software. The software is CJIS compliant, web based software used to produce court ready, side-by-side charted enlargements of fingerprint comparisons. It is designed by a latent print examiner for latent print examiners. It includes all of the tools you need in a streamlined, lightweight application without all of the complexities of Photoshop.

Steve is also the developer of SuiteLIMS, which is a modular, browser based laboratory information management system. SuiteLIMS is designed specifically for forensic service divisions of law enforcement agencies or private forensic consultants.