Susan Rinehart

Susan Rinehart is a Criminalist III with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Forensic Science Division.  She has been a criminalist with the LAPD since 1994.

Ms. Rinehart holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a Master of Science Degree in Criminalistics from California State University, Los Angeles.  Between 2003 and 2015 she was an adjunct professor at the Los Angeles City College in the Criminal Justice Curriculum.  She is a member of the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts (IABPA) and of the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS).

Ms. Rinehart received International Certification in BPA from the International Association for Identification in 2016 and was voted in as a member of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) BPA Subcommittee in 2017.  She is currently the Vice Chairperson for that Subcommittee.
              
Ms. Rinehart finished an internal validation in BPA for the LAPD with the aid of another coworker, and  has written the policy and procedures manual, the training manual, test methods and work instructions for that discipline.  Ms. Rinehart is currently assigned to the Field Unit and is the technical leader for BPA at the LAPD.  In addition, Ms. Rinehart began teaching a crime scene reconstruction graduate course at the California State University, Los Angeles (CSLA) in the Fall semester of 2022, which has been approved by the IABPA as a Basic BPA course.