Michael W. Byrd joined the Miami-Dade County Police Department in 1985.  He began working in their Crime Scene Investigation Bureau in 1987.  Michael Byrd passed away in 2004.  Michael Byrd published over 30 articles on crime scene investigations and evidence handling.  He is the author of Crime Scene Evidence: A Guide to the Recovery and Collection of Physical Evidence.

According to the book description of Crime Scene Evidence: A Guide to the Recovery and Collection of Physical Evidence, “The purpose of this book is to give the investigator a quick and easy reference guide to the collection, handling, and packaging of crime scene evidence. It is meant to assist everyone working in the field of evidence collection--from the first responding officer, to the newly assigned investigator, to the savvy veteran with many crime scene responses under his/her belt. The first responding officer may find himself/herself involved in a situation where he/she will need to collect a particular piece of evidence for whatever reason. In the beginning the crime scene trainee, regardless of their previous experience, can often times find that the job appears to be overwhelming. This is usually due to the abundant task and knowledge required to fulfill the duties of a crime scene investigator or evidence recovery technician. On the same pretext, the crafty veteran may find himself/herself assigned to do a task that he/she hasn't performed in a long time. As in any occupation if something is not done on a continuous basis, the basic knowledge need for completing that task may be temporarily forgotten. Hopefully this text will assist everyone in carrying out the task of crime scene evidence recovery and collection with ease.”