L.A.’s crime fighters in lab coats

When Court TV launched its “Forensic Files” series in 2000, there wasn’t much competition when it came to programs about the science of police evidence examination.

Nowadays it’s hard to turn on the television without catching a glimpse of slickly produced dramas, such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace” or “The Evidence,” that cast forensics in a sexy veneer.

So when Court TV executives decided to create a spinoff of its real-life forensic series set in a particular city -- just as the “CSI” franchise has done -- they picked the place they believed would provide the most sizzle: Los Angeles.

“If there is any city that has a very distinct, unique personality, it’s L.A. as the home of entertainment and movie stars and glamour and sun,” said Marc Juris, the network’s general manager of marketing and programming. “Lots of people go to Los Angeles to find their dreams, and that lends itself to some great stories -- and crimes.”

But it remains to be seen whether “L.A. Forensics” -- a show premiering at 10:30 tonight that is based on real case files of the LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division -- will be able to compete with the twists of fictional television dramas.

“That’s a challenge for us because real forensics is sometimes intense and time-consuming,” admitted Ed Hersch, Court TV’s executive vice president of programming. “Real CSI investigators don’t drive around in Hummers and throw witnesses across the hood. In the real world, these people are meticulous; they’re scientists.”

Indeed, the investigators featured in the first two episodes of “L.A. Forensics” resemble earnest lab technicians, not Hollywood’s notion of smoldering, hard-boiled detectives. And there’s no glistening lab with high-tech computers that instantly spit out a suspect’s name and address based on a partial shoe print.

That’s exactly why LAPD Chief William J. Bratton wanted his department to participate in the show.

“There are so many misconceptions, unfortunately, that have been formed by shows like ‘CSI,’ ” Bratton said. “The real world is, in many respects, very different in the sense of what our capabilities are.”

But nowadays jurors increasingly expect to see the same kind of scientific razzle-dazzle in trials that they watch on forensic dramas, he said.

“They want ballistic evidence; they want definitive presentations in front of them, similar to what they’re seeing on TV,” said Bratton, whose wife, Rikki Klieman, is a Court TV analyst. “Most cases that go before a jury don’t require that.”

He hopes that by watching “L.A. Forensics,” the public will get “a much more realistic expectation of what the real world of policing and police science is really like.”

Unlike their dramatic brethren, the investigators on “L.A. Forensics” don’t make arrests or interrogate suspects. Hersch said producers sought to find crimes in the Scientific Investigation Division’s archives that hinged on the analysis of evidence such as blood, fingerprints and ballistics -- and, ideally, include “twists and turns.”

The premiere episode, “The Makeup Bomber,” is based on the 1986 shooting of a well-known makeup artist in North Hollywood and the eventual discovery of a pipe bomb in the garage of one of the victim’s rivals. “The Hancock Park Mystery,” which airs April 7, traces how investigators revived a long-dormant murder case through fingerprint analysis.

Producers use what they call “point-of-view reenactment” to illustrate the crime and the investigation, with actors playing the victims, suspects and the police. The footage is interspersed with current-day interviews with investigators and news coverage of the original case.

Court TV executives believe that viewers are drawn to the verite of this kind of programming.

“I don’t want this to feel like a fake show,” Hersch said. “We want to make sure that people understand it’s real and these are real experts.”