Mobile forensic and science labs have been rolled out to help Victoria Police respond faster to major incidents such as terror attacks and bushfires.
Three new vehicles, unveiled on Wednesday, will be able to test evidence such as chemical and biological substances at crime scenes and save investigators the time of transporting samples to the force's forensic headquarters in the northeast Melbourne suburb of Macleod.
"This is not just going to be really important in counter-terrorism instances," Police Minister Lisa Neville told reporters on Wednesday.
"But something like the Black Saturday bushfires, it would have been a really incredible uplift at the time, or something like Bourke Street."
Two of the vehicles will act as forensic and science labs, respectively, while the other can process CCTV, images and evidence such as fingerprints.
"The idea being that we can provide police with the name of a person of interest whilst we're actually in the field," Victoria Police's acting executive director of forensics, Rebecca Kogios, said.
She added the technical lab could also produce 3D scans of a crime scene, potentially revealing things such as false walls or hidden cavities which would have otherwise gone undetected.
The mobile forensics and science lab includes biohazard detection and x-ray equipment as well as an isolation chamber.
