David Miranda

Various sources have noted that the average adult goes through five to six careers in a working lifetime. Dave is no exception to that.

His longest career was with the Pasadena (CA) Police Department for 24 years. He was a founding member of its Forensic Services Section. During his tenure, he attained a high level of expertise in several areas including crime scene investigation, evidence processing, fingerprint comparisons, crime scene reconstruction, and courtroom testimony. He was also the primary trainer of all new hires in, both, Field and Lab work as well as training to competency in print comparisons. During his tenure with department he also worked several years as a part-time in instructor at a local forensic school, with several students going on to employment and current service in the field in various agencies throughout Southern California, Michigan, and the Army Crime Lab. His career included work in several high profile cases such as the 1993 Halloween Homicide and the assisting in the Glendale Train Wreck of 2005. Through the Instructor Development Course from the California Peace Officer Standard and Training (California POST) he as attained the Level 3 POST Instructor Certification. He hopes, in the near future, to attain the final level of Master Instructor.

After retirement from Pasadena, he in the JEFF Program (Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities) and deployed to Afghanistan as a contractor for a total of 21 months. This was in support of the Coalition mission. He was worked at different labs as an evidence processor as well as a fingerprint expert. He was also part of a pilot training program as an instructor of Afghan nationals from the Ministry of Interior of the government of Afghanistan. His field of instruction included developing their expertise in fingerprint comparisons as well as giving them tools to be trainers of future examiners. This relationship also led to the sponsorship of the first members from Afghanistan to the International Association for Identification (IAI), 2011-2012. During his employ, he passed the required elements and became a Certified Latent Print Examiner (CLPE), a professional credential through the IAI.

Prior to his career in Forensics he earned a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and received an ordination from the American Baptist Churches/USA. His very first job was as a park construction worker his hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. During that time, he constructed a park with 90% of the work being his solo effort. That park can be seen on Google Maps as Blevins Park, Fort Collins, Colorado.

He holds a 1st degree Black Belt in Hapkido. He plays acoustic guitar in his home church and is a teacher of his adult church school class. He also has gone back to school in a community college setting and has taken acting classes because he was curious to see if he could do it. He was cast in two plays so the answer appears to be "yes" so now he is seeing how far he can go with this possible career.

In addition to Evidence Found, Dave is planning several books on various subjects including Theology and Social Commentary, as well as pursuing the writing of a TV series which he promises will be a crime scene show like nothing seen before.