You can watch it every week on the television program "CSI" - crimes solved with the help of science, and while it may not happen as quickly in real life as it does on TV, police say what you see for the most part is real technology.

Police science instructor Paul Clarke, who teaches at Northcentral Technical College, says technology is moving so fast that in some cases, police are sitting on evidence waiting for technology to catch up with the actual crime.

He says it is now possible for crimes taking place decades ago to be solved with the help of science.

As an example. in the past investigators needed a sample comparable to the size of a nickel to do DNA analysis.

Now they only need a sample one-fifth the size.