The Belleville Police Service is proud to announce that the main forensics laboratory at Belleville Police Service has been named the “Dale Ashbury Forensic Identification Laboratory.”
Dale Ashbury joined the Belleville Police Service in November1959. Dale was instrumental in leading a significant change in the way forensic identification services were used to study crime in the city of Belleville.
On his arrival, he found that Belleville city police depended on the Ontario Provincial Police for these services. According to Ashbury, “All the Belleville Police had was a sort of petty cash box with about two or three vials of powders in it – one grey, one black and one of another colour, about three brushes and some rubber lifters … we didn’t even have a camera.”
Following a few years of Volunteer work and study, Dale took training courses with the RCMP investigation unit in Ottawa and the Forensic Science Lab in Toronto.
Upon his return, he set up what Police Chief Doug Crosbie termed “a complete first-class identification department.” The Belleville Police thanks Dale Ashbury for his contributions in revolutionizing policing in the city of Belleville.
