Forensics @ THE SECURIZINE

Cozart’s Rapid Solids Tests has been extended to detect an even greater range of drugs, the company has announced.

The test can be used to detect cannabis, heroin, ecstasy, amphetamines and benzodiazepines.

All of these tests offer the opportunity to test for the presence of illicit drugs in powders, tablets, resins, liquids and on surfaces, without the costs or inconvenience of a laboratory submission.

‘Cozart is delighted to now be able to offer our customers a comprehensive suite of drug tests, that have improved health and safety implications for the user as they do not involve hazardous chemicals or glass vials to break,’ a spokeswoman said.

Earlier this year Cozart received approval from the Home Office for the Cocaine Solids test to be used by UK Police Forces for on-site analysis for minor possession with personal use and presumptive guilty plea cases.

Last week, Securizine revealed Thames Valley police is deploying the £5 drug testing kits in the force area. See the story here

http://www.cozart.co.uk/

Bloodstains that have been washed away can now been detected using BLUESTAR® Forensic which is a new reagent which reveals bloodstains invisible to the naked eye in less than three minutes.

The product, aimed at crime investigators, is based upon chemiluminescence. Its formula makes it one of the most effective blood revealer products available on the market, for crime scene as well as forensic lab use, say its makers.

If the HEXAGON OBTI result is positive, human blood has been detected. It does not alter the DNA of the revealed blood which allows for its subsequent genotyping and it detects whole blood up to a dilution of 1 : 1,000,000. A positive sample is typically detected within 2-3 minutes. The test will be exhibited at Milipol.

http://www.bluestar-forensic.com/

Hertfordshire Constabulary is to become the first force in the country to trial a new foot printing following new laws that allow the police to take footwear impressions of people in custody.

To take a footprint, officers will be able to simply place a prisoner's footwear on a chemically impregnated, reusable sponge pad, then press it onto special paper which reacts with those chemicals, leaving a perfect ink based impression without any residue being left on the footwear.

Chief Inspector Mark Crampton, leading the project, called the product 'revolutionary' and added that it could change the face of evidence gathering.

‘In the past, scenes of crime focus has been on fingerprint and DNA evidence. With the use of these footpads, we can now add footprints to that focus.’

As well as footpads, the company will also provide equipment for taking elimination prints, fingerprint and palm print kits, using the same technology. Mobile fingerprint kits will be available, for FPN and other uses.

Inspector Crampton said: ‘This is a really exciting piece of technology. To further aid the process, a database is currently being developed in the UK which will enable all footprints to be fed in as digital images, for comparison purposes nationwide.’

‘I hope that this procedure will lead to higher detection rates through footprint evidence and that prints found at the scene which may otherwise have been of limited value forensically, can now play a greater role in bringing criminals to justice.’

Trials began in the Central Area on October 24th and a forcewide rollout is tabled for January 2006.

Under the Serious and Organised Crime Act 2005, police now have powers to take footwear impressions of people in custody.

Thames Valley Police is using a two-minute cocaine testing kit to help officers speed up the fight against drug dealers.

Scenes of crime experts are among those now receiving training on how to use the £5 kits - aimed at saving time and money.

Even a minute trace of the Class A drug can be found when the suspect substance is mixed with a chemical solution and placed in the tester cartridge - similar to a pregnancy test.

If cocaine is present the test displays a single purple line. This cuts down waiting time for samples to be returned from the Culham forensics lab, which can cost up to £50 for each procedure. Larger amounts of the drug will still be sent for purity testing but the new test means suspects can be charged and held in custody.

Scene of crime officer Karen Smith said: ‘The great thing about the new test is that it's cost-effective, quick and risk-free as it does not contain any hazardous chemicals.’

Doubt has been cast on the reliability of fingerprint evidence by a leading lecturer in psychology at the University of Southampton.

Dr Itiel Dror worked with more than seventy fingerprint experts from across the world for two years to test his theory that mistakes are made because of the way the human brain processes information.

‘The mind is not a camera. It is a dynamic machine which can distort what it sees, not a passive recorder of visual information. Perception is far from perfection.’

Five fingerprint examiners were tested with examples of prong that they had previously identified as positive matches in court five years earlier. Only one of the experts agreed with their previous decision. Three examiners said the prints were a no-match and one wasn’t sure.

Scotland's first unit of Forensic Art has been established at Dundee University. The unit is based within Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and will be headed by Dr Caroline Wilkinson, who is attached to the unit of Anatomy and Forensic Anthroplogy in the School of Life Sciences.

She is joined in the unit by forensic artist Caroline Needham. Both have been recently recruited from the University of Manchester.

The unit boasts a ground-breaking computer facial reconstruction system which enables the user to ‘feel’ the surface of the skull or face on the computer screen.

Dr Wilkinson said: ‘You need artistic skills to produce a lot of the work we do, as for instance facial reconstruction requires sculptural skills. There is a lot of detailed drawing work involved as well.

‘At the same time, you need a sound knowledge of anatomy and forensic anthropology to ensure that the detail is correct.’

The new unit will initially be a practical facility, with hopes to broaden into teaching and research in the future.

Forensic art work includes disciplines such as building facial reconstructions, recreating facial appearance from post-mortem images or illustrations of trauma for use in court. The work has widespread use, from human identification purposes, to archaeological investigations, to work for museums and media.

A new tooth enamel dating technique could help identify the age of disaster victims.

The new technique, developed by researchers at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, determines the amount of carbon-14, a radioactive substance produced by the above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and 60s, present in tooth enamel.

It could help scientists identify the age of a person to within two years. Previous techniques, such as evaluating skeletal remains and tooth wear, are accurate only to within five to 10 years in adults.

Scientists can relate the extensive atmospheric record for carbon-14 to when the tooth was formed and calculate the age of the tooth, and its owner, to an accuracy of within about 1.6 years.

‘Unlike most other tissue, dental enamel doesn’t turn over,’ said Bruce Buchholz of LLNL’s Centre for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, where the enamel samples were analysed.

‘Whatever carbon gets laid down in enamel during tooth formation stays there, so tooth enamel is a very good chronometer of the time of formation.

‘We were surprised at how well it worked,’ he said. ‘And if you look at multiple teeth formed at different times, you can get (the age range) even tighter.’

Swedish forensic scientists already have used enamel dating to help narrow the search for victims of last December’s tsunami in Southeast Asia.

‘After a few days in the water, it’s very hard to identify someone,’ he said.
‘You can’t use (enamel dating) to identify a person – that requires a DNA analysis – but you can narrow down the number of people you need to look at from a list of missing people.’

Livermore officials are providing information on the enamel dating technique to federal agencies as part of the Laboratory’s scientific and technical assistance in response to Hurricane Katrina.

Carbon-14, or radiocarbon, is naturally produced by cosmic ray interactions with air and is present at low levels in the atmosphere and food. Atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons from 1955 to1963 produced a dramatic surge in the amount of radiocarbon in the atmosphere.

Blood stain analysts will be able to apply computer technology to the analysis of bloodstains, following the launch of HemoSpat.

HemoSpat provides the bloodstain pattern analyst with a method of computing the ‘strings’ of a bloodstain pattern photographed at a crime scene.

The data can then be used for directional analysis to determine the origin of the bloodshed or for input into crime scene reconstruction software.

Scientists often rely on physical stringing, mathematical methods or digital photos taken from a crime scene which HemoSpat say can leave room for input errors.

HemoSpat will be available for MAC OS X, Windows 2000, and Windows XP in 2006. HemoSpat is looking for bloodstain pattern analysts to take part in a study.

http://hemospat.com/

Australian law enforcement technology company, Harrington Group Ltd, is set to acquire the company that founded the world’s first rapid saliva drug test in a $3.7 million deal.

Harrington has announced it will acquire 40 per cent interest in US-company Sun Biomedical Laboratories in exchange for 12 million Harrington Group shares. The company will have an option until June 30th 2006 to acquire the remaining 60 per cent.

Dr Ming Sun, Sun Biomedical’s founder, introduced the first saliva drug test in 1988.

Peter Boonen, Harrington Group managing director, said: ‘Sun Biomedical specialises in illicit drug identification products for use in police roadside drug testing, correctional facilities, the military, professional sports and workplace drug testing.’

‘Up to six illicit drugs can be simultaneously tested in only minutes very cheaply, so the test kits will be a highly effective weapon in the fight against drugged drivers on our roads.’

http://www.hgrltd.com/

The second only UK scientist to visit the Body Farm is planning a series of presentations to share his findings.

Dr Andy Hart, a forensic scientist with the Forensic Science Service travelled to the Body Farm in Tennessee, made famous in the Patricia Cornwell novel, to conduct a number of experiments to advance his understanding of insects found in cadavers.

The Body Farm is a unique facility that allows scientists to conduct experiments on human corpses.

Dr Hart said: ‘It was an opportunity of a lifetime. I have read widely on the subject, but I have never carried out experiments on human corpses before and the experience was invaluable. I learnt so much which I am now hoping to apply to my work here in the UK. Entomology is an under-used forensic application in this country.’

Dr Hart plans to publish his findings and give a series of lectures. Officers wanting to know more about the role of entomology in crime scene investigation can contact Dr Hart at the Forensic Science Service.

Email: communications@fss.pnn.police.uk

Iris recognition can now be carried out on a person without them having to stop to have their eyes scanned, following the introduction of Iris On The Move® by the Sarnoff Corporation.

Until now subjects had to stand in front of a scanner and line up the eye for proper identification. Now they simply walk through a portal at normal speed with no need to stop. As a result, twenty subjects a minute can be recognised, using Iris On The Move®.

Sarnoff’s Dr James R.Matey said: ‘We can capture Iris images in a minimally constrained environment; the subject can be moving and need only open their eyes and look forward as they walk through the recognition portal.’

http://www.sarnoff.com/

The Police Standards Unit and ACPO have commissioned further work on Livescan, the automation of fingerprint capture, to ensure the business benefits are realised from the wider rollout across the police service.

The PSU is keen to exploit the wider opportunities for police forces with a view to issuing good practice and making the Livescan more widely available, according to the Home Office’s police reform e-bulletin.

Kent police have recently piloted it in several areas in anticipation of a force roll out and identified a need to change working patterns in the fingerprint bureau. This will enable staff to launch ten-print images against unidentified crime scene marks while suspects are still in custody.

Three new evidence drying cabinets from Air Science Technology Ltd have been installed at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Dublin.

The company worked with Cork-based contamination control specialists, Uniflo, to design and produced three one-metre wide drying cabinets which were installed in just two days.

‘The installation and commissioning of the forensic drying cabinets went exactly as planned,’ said Uniflo director, Declan Fitzgerald.

The cabinets have a fume containment and filtration mechanism that creates steady airflow which gives constant and controllable drying conditions for any evidence stored in them.

An advanced pre-filter on the air inlet also protects against the risks of cross contamination

http://www.airscienceuk.com/

National Footwear Workshop Held in Nottinghamshire

A two-day national footwear workshop was held in Nottinghamshire last month to ‘refine and develop the vision to capture and exploit’ footwear intelligence found at crime scenes, according to the Home Office.

The initiative, organised by the Police Standards Unit, was timed to support new police powers to take footwear impressions from suspects in custody.

The findings are expected soon and will enable the ACPO National Footwear Development Group to implement planning to ensure ‘quick wins’ are identified.

The world's first five watt fully portable scene of crime laser is now available from Laser Innovations.

The Revelation Forensic Laser was designed in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police Service and the Home Office Scientific Development Branch to provide an easy to operate fluorescence examination light source.

Operating at a wavelength of 532nm, the laser will fluoresce untreated or treated surfaces.

The laser will help discover fingerprints, fibres, bone fragments and other evidence at the crime scene. Light and easy to manoeuvre, the laser will even operate from a battery pack or small generator.

Safety features include a 'dead man's finger' operation, trigger guard, and emergency cut-off interlock. It all fits neatly into a robust durable case with integral wheels and handle.

http://www.laser-innovations.co.uk

A ‘DRagon’ mobile Digital Radiography system was deployed as part of the mass disaster plan following the July 7th London bombings to help The Association of Forensic Radiographers (AFR) to swiftly identify victims of the terrorist attacks.

The fold-up digital X-ray system incorporates a mobile X-ray unit and a 35x43cm Canon portable direct digital detector plate. The entire system folds into a compact size that can be easily deployed to any location in a small van or estate car. A robust flight case is also available.

The DRagon produces an instant digital image in just 3 seconds without the need for traditional X-ray film or chemicals. The image is viewed on the unit’s flat panel display and then also made available on a medical workstation or a portable tablet PC using wireless networking technology for further forensic examination or archiving.

‘The swift and accurate identification of people was very important in this situation to help provide vital information to worried family and friends in the days following the incident,’ said Mark Viner, Chair of the Association of Forensic Radiographers.

The portable X-ray system is of particular use for off-site forensic examinations and military field hospitals as it is compact in size and easily transportable. The International Criminal Court and disaster recovery teams for the Asian Tsunami have previously used similar Canon DR technologies.

DRagon is available from Xograph Imaging Systems in the UK

http://www.xograph.com

A top government police reformer has visited South Yorkshire police's forensics department.

Paul Evans, director of the Police Standards Unit, was in the force area to observe good practice in a number of areas after a previous successful visit.

The former police chief also attended the force's Serious and Organised Crime Unit. Automatic Number Plate Recognition trained officers also demonstrated the latest camera and computer technology.

Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes said: ‘We welcome Mr Evans as an individual but we also welcome him in order to demonstrate the positives in our Force and its services.

‘The Police Standards Unit aims to help improve policing across the country. By visiting our Force we hope it will assist them to make these improvements where necessary.’

Forensic Alliance is holding a conference on blood spatter next month. 'The good, the bad and the very, very strange' will be held at the Belfry in Warwickshire on October 7-9.

Karen Schembri, Events Manager at Forensic Alliance, says: 'Do not miss a chance to discuss unusual blood patterns, emerging techniques and, most importantly, the interpretation (or misinterpretation!) of blood patterns with scientists from many different laboratories. This workshop at the De Vere Belfry Hotel in Wishaw, north Warwickshire, will encourage debate about BPA and provide an insight into delivering expert opinions for the prosecution and the defence'.

Days One and Two
The first two days are open to anyone with an interest in BPA, although it will be most suitable for people with some prior knowledge. The workshops will feature lectures, posters and demonstrations.

Day Three
The third day will be devoted to discussion groups and is open only to those forensic scientists with extensive BPA experience. People wishing to attend must have attended at least one 40-hour BPA workshop and be willing to present one case example for discussion. All applicants should provide brief details of the case they intend to present so that Forensic Alliance can arrange appropriate discussion groups.

For more information call Karen Schembri on 01235 551800 or email mailto:karen.schembri@forensicalliance.com.

A full brochure on all conferences can be downloaded at http://www.forensic-alliance.com/

The Ecology Team at Forensic Alliance is running two Open Days to be held on:

20th September at HTS Lane End, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

22nd September at The Britannia Hotel, Near Wigan, Lancashire

'The purpose of the events is to provide an introduction to the range of services that we can offer, and to exchange information regarding your specific requirements. Both days will consist of a series of short presentations on forensic anthropology and archaeology, palynology, soil science and entomology. There will be ample opportunity for questions and discussion at the end of each session and during breaks. There will also be a poster session during lunch and a chance to meet with the staff then. Lunch and refreshments throughout the day will be provided'.

Please complete the registration form and fax back to Karen Schembri on 01865 407162 by 16th September 2005.

For more information call Karen Schembri on 01235 551800 or email mailto:karen.schembri@forensicalliance.com.

A full brochure on all conferences can be downloaded at http://www.forensic-alliance.com/

A new portable forgery detection system has been launched by ACO Electronics.

The Hertfordshire-based company says the PD-350 is designed to examine all types of suspect documents.

It accompanies the FD-02 Forgery Detection kit which is a low cost collection of forgery detection devices, housed in a lightweight nylon carrying case.

The PD-350 is launched alongside the Collator II, which has a new optical design for side-by-side easy fingerprint comparison.

The Fingerprint Comparator FC-911 has a large platen which allows sheets up to A4 size to be rapidly inserted without interference.

A spring loaded mechanism ensures the images remain in sharp focus.

Web: http://www.acoelectronics.com/

Achievements in crime scene examination, fingerprint training and police photography were, on Saturday (16th July) highlighted at a National Awards Day, hosted by Centrex’s National Training for Scientific Support to Crime Investigation (Centrex NTC).

The annual high profile awards ceremony is an academic occasion in association with Durham University to confer students who have achieved University Diploma status as Crime Scene Examiners or Fingerprint Examination.

Held at the Durham Castle and in the presence of the Rt. Honourable Hilary Armstrong MP (North West Durham) and Government Chief Whip, students from 29 police forces were awarded, along with one senior officer who travelled from Botswana for the ceremony.
The Ustinov Award was also presented to Simon Chapman from Leicestershire Constabulary, given in honour of outstanding achievement by the late Sir Peter Ustinov, former Chancellor of the University of Durham.

Web: http://www.forensic-training.police.uk