Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, one of the oldest state expert institutions of Ukraine, was established on July 4, 1913 as the Cabinet of scientific and forensic examinations at the Prosecutor of the Kiev Court Chamber.
The functions of the Cabinet were to conduct forensic examinations for the tasks of the preliminary investigation and the courts; to develop and create methods and techniques of examining evidence in criminal and civil cases; to conduct explanatory work among the bodies that appointed forensic examinations; to participate in scientific conferences (congresses) of criminalists and forensic medicine specialists.
In 1925, the Cabinet was reorganized into the Institute of scientific and forensic examinations, which was staffed by specialists from different disciplines – lawyers, chemists, biologists, physicians, physicists, psychiatrists and others.
The priority in those years was the research work in which the close attention was paid to the questions of firearms identification, micrographs, the definition of blood group, toxicological analysis, development of destructive methods of organic matters and determining alkaloids, the development of theoretical Forensic science.
The Great Patriotic War (within World War II) interrupted the activities of the Institute until 1944.
In the 50s and 60s the institute scientists were developing highly sensitive physical and chemical methods of physical examining evidence in order to determine the nature of the substances, their common group identity and a single (same) source of origin, methods of comparative analysis of medicinal compounds, soil samples, etc., and determine traces after a close shot.
Since 1964 KFI has become the leading agency for the publication of interdepartmental scientific and methodological collection “Criminalistics and Forensics”, which highlights the problems of the theory of criminalistics and forensics, tactics and techniques of investigation into certain types of crimes, the issues on development of new and improvement of existing methods and methodologies for different types of forensic examinations.
During the period of the collection, its 60 print editions have been published.
In the late 80s the new laboratories for commodity, construction, technical, economic, computer, laser, audio and speech examinations have been created.
In 1990 Ternopil branch of the Institute was founded, in 1998 – Vinnytsia and Cherkasy branches, in 2001 – Chernihiv branch, in 2009 – Zhytomyr and in 2012 – Khmelnytskyi branches, in 2017 – Ivano-Frankivsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Chernivtsi Branches.
Today the Institute is a leading forensic expert establishment employing experienced team of renowned scientists, professionals in the fields of forensics, which has the skills required for most types of expert research and the equipment of appropriate level, and conducts fruitful work to perform forensic examinations and research, to create a proper evidence base.
Since its establishment, the Institute has provided a high level of scientific and methodological support to the courts at all levels, investigators of MIA of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, prosecutors, customs and other agencies, for tasks of which an entire spectrum of forensic, traditional and new types of forensic examinations is conducted.
For more than 105 years, the specialists of the Institute performed more than 1000000 examinations, including about 750 thousand – since Ukraine’s independence, published more than 2500 scientific papers and made more than 300 scientific – research developments.
A significant percentage of examinations that are assigned to the KFI are complex and multiple object examinations in high-profile criminal cases. The Institute performs the examinations on 94 expert specialties. The research of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues and precursors; computer – technology and handwriting examinations, technical examinations of documents are especially popular.
Some forensic examinations are conducted in the expert establishments of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. They are: the identification of the author, psychological, construction – technical, environmental, land – engineering, traffic engineering, rail-transport and Occupational Health examinations.
The experts of the Institute conduct the examinations on telecommunication systems and solve actual issues related to unauthorized access to telecommunication systems and individual information resources.
The research related to the study of malicious software is especially popular in this area currently.
Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise is certified according to the requirements of State Standard ISO / IEC 17025: 2006 in the studies of plant origin drugs, control and testing firearms and ammunition, cold weapons (side arms) and appliances structurally similar to weapons, explosive devices, research of instruments , tools and their traces, footwear and its trails, information search among existing and previously deleted information on digital media (Accreditation Certificate of 20.12.2013 number 2H1141).
In 2015, the new types of expertise, such as military and psychological examinations were introduced.
In addition, one of the main activities of the Institute is the research work aimed at improving the efficiency of research in the field of forensics, development of theoretical, procedural issues in forensics as well as techniques and methods of forensic examinations in view of modern science and technology achievements.
The KFI staff participated in the development of two National Standards of Ukraine, their inventions received 6 patents.
Research findings correspond to international standards, as evidenced by many security documents and patents.
The Institute has an international reputation as an active developer of new methods of examining evidence. The employees are active in the Ukrainian and international symposia, conferences, seminars, they take part in the commission examinations together with specialists from other expert institutions of Ukraine and other countries.
