NEW BRAUNFELS -- The New Braunfels Police Department has a brand new unit on the force.
For the first time, the department has its own crime scene unit and a full-time crime scene investigator.
KENS 5 caught up with the woman who started not one, but two crime scene divisions in Comal County.
"I will mark that evidence, I will photograph that again, I will take samples of DNA and blood evidence depending on the scene," said Tracy Wakeman, the crime scene technician of the New Braunfels Police Department.
Wakeman now handles the evidence in crime scene investigations so officers can take care of fighting crime in other ways.
"They need to go talk to witnesses. They need to go hunt down the suspects, possibly. They need to go check surveillance," Wakeman said. "I can make them do that while I take care of the scene."
No, the city's not overridden with crime. But they need the help. Wakeman helps a cases move quicker.
"Everything that I collect, that I photograph, that I fingerprint, I am going to give it to them and they're gonna run with it," Wakeman noted.
This isn't Wakeman's first go-around, either.
After graduating with honors and a Criminal Justice Degree from Pensacola State College in 2014, Wakeman worked crime scenes in Florida and helped launch the crime scene unit at the Comal County Sheriff's Office.
"I was 39 years old and was not happy with what I was doing. I wanted to do something different, something worthwhile where I could actually give back," she said. "I went back to school, and I thought, I want to be a crime scene unit investigator."
She's also a role model 24/7.
"I have a lot of women actually stop me if I'm in a store, a grocery store or Walmart or whatever, and they tell me, 'Thank you for what you do because you don't see that many women do this type of job,'" Wakeman noted.
The crime scene investigations division is expanding, too. New Braunfels police are now accepting applications for another crime scene technician.
"It's been a great journey," Wakeman said. "I love, love, love what I do and I feel like I'm making a difference."