What is the NCIS?

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is a team of federal law enforcement professionals dedicated to protecting the people, equipment, technology, and infrastructure of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

Over the last seven years NCIS has seen a rise in the number of applications (for special agent, analyst, and other jobs) due to the high visibility/profile the agency now enjoys worldwide because of the TV show. Currently there are approximately 100 applications for every special agent job opening.

Although NCIS operated its own labs when the TV show began to air in 2003 and the character Abby on the show was partly based on a real life NCIS lab director (actress Pauley Perrette visited the NCIS lab in San Diego in July 2003), the real NCIS now employs the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL), located at Fort Gillem, Georgia for all its forensic work. USACIL is the executive agent within the Department of Defense for forensic laboratory services supporting the DoD investigative agencies.

The real NCIS, unlike NCIS the TV show, does not have its own medical examiner. NCIS special agents, however, routinely work with military and state/county medical examiners, and attend and participate in autopsies to share and learn information that could help in death investigations. The forensic autopsy is an essential component of the death investigation. In addition, NCIS has forensic consultants, all with masters degrees in forensic science, who provide crime scene investigative expertise.

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