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Using new weapons in war against crime
From the Salisbury Journal, first published Friday 2nd Feb 2007.
Dorset's crime scene investigation unit is rated as one of the best in the country
A DEEP freeze was full of livers, stomach contents, lungs and other body parts - a visit to the crime scene investigation unit at the Eastern division headquarters at Dorset Police in Ferndown was a real eye-opener.Vitreous humour (the jelly from the eye) can show the alcohol or drugs content of a body at the time of death and other parts can similarly give crucial clues to solve a murder.
And the "murder cupboard" - opposite the freezer - is full of files on two years of rapes and murders in the county.
Yet CSI supervisor Richard Tubb said Dorset still remains one of the safest places in the south to live, thanks to agencies of the Dorset criminal justice board, which includes Dorset police, Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts Service, Pobation, HM Prison Services and the Youth Offending Teams.
In the six years that he has been working at the crime scene investigation unit, Mr Tubb has been involved in the investigation of only ten murders and all but one have resulted in successful prosecutions. The remaining case is ongoing.
Crime scene investigators are now armed with a battery of equipment and crimes are often solved at an impressive rate, thanks to the people who work behind the scenes at the unit.
From clerical officers and technicians through to the fingerprint experts, the main aim is to provide a service to the crime investigator and police. The unit's performance is recognised as being in the top 25 percentile in the UK.
Good, old-fashioned fingerprints are involved in much of the work but scientific techniques have come a long way since Enid Blyton wrote the Secret Seven books.
A crime scene investigator dusts and lifts fingerprints with tape and brings them back to the office where fingerprint expert Bill Nixon and others analyse the loops, whirls and arches present. There are also lakes and branches, making examination of the average print rather like following an ordnance survey map.
"If I saw a lake it would be a fantastic starting point," Mr Nixon said.
He displayed an acetate of a fingerprint from a burglary probe and explained that it would be matched against a national database. Impressively, in just five minutes, the system came up with 15 possible matches out of six million prints.
Mr Nixon explained that investigators get a feel for matching prints, although he admitted his eyesight had become worse since he started the job as fingerprint officer.
However, each identification has to be verified independently by another fingerprint officer and then again by the head of bureau before the prints can stand up to the scrutiny of a court of law.
But it's not all about fingerprints, according to forensic researcher Roger Sissons.
There are also thousands of different types of footprints available for comparison with prints left at crime scenes.
He said that Nike alone has more than 500 different shoeprints and the cheaper manufacturers tend to copy these, or use second-hand moulds from major manufacturers, complicating the identification process further.
Yet a crime scene investigator can take a gel lift from just part of a footprint on the ground and Mr Sissons can match it with those available on a database and come up with a complete picture of the correct shoe. The database also can reveal other crimes in the region where shoes with similar prints have been worn.
Mr Sissons said: "Shoe prints have really taken off in the past few years and we've had a lot of success with them."
Mr Tubb said: "We're aiming to get information back to frontline police as fast as possible.
"Dorset is the third-best performing force in the country and crime detection rates have gone up and up.
"The quicker you are behind an offender the more chance you have of retrieving evidence. Everything we do in this department is aimed at getting information out faster.
"So, two hours later, when a suspect is being interviewed, the evidence is there, so they are more likely to be charged with an offence. That's what we're aiming at."
The Dorset CSI unit has one amazing piece of equipment which helps with the information technology frenzy - a pen with a tiny built-in camera.
The pen is used by a crime scene investigator to fill in a report form at the scene of an incident. The information is sent via a mobile phone link into the police computer system. This means a police officer can access information within 20 minutes of the investigator completing the form.
The pen is just one of hundreds of items an investigator has to take to a crime scene. As well as a fully kitted van of protective clothing, there is a case crammed with powders, tools and even five different torches capable of emitting light of different wavelengths. These can show blood, semen and other stains, which might not normally be visible to the naked eye.
Mr Tubb said: "With CSIs you don't know what you're going to be faced with until you get there."
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