ICSIA's newsletter, The Examiner, July 2012 issue

ICSIA Examiner July 2012

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From the Editor

We are a bit behind schedule with this edition of the newsletter, for which we apologize. There were some issues, including my own busy schedule. Nonetheless, we are striving to have the issues out to you in good order and I apologize again for the delay.

Meanwhile- we are always in need of interesting information, photos, etc. to share with your fellow members. If you have anything to share for future issues, please drop me a line.

Daryl

Got comments/questions or want to submit an article for The Examiner? e-mail me: Daryl W. Clemens

President's Message

Message from Hayden B. Baldwin, Executive Director

Members:

I just attended the IAI Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference was not as large as normal, less than 1000 attended. A few of the planned workshops were cancelled because of a lack of attendance. It is the sign of the times here in the USA. Most police agencies are not spending the money on training right now due to fiscal restraint. The schedule for the week was busy with lectures and workshops and those that attended were happy to be here. The vendor’s area seemed smaller than normal and was open only for Tuesday and closed Wednesday at 3 PM. This is where I spent most of my time, visiting the vendors. We should see more of their product reviews in future editions of the Newsletter.

As always keep up the great work out there, stay safe and pass on the word about ICSIA!

Hayden B. Baldwin, Executive Director
International Crime Scene Investigators Association (ICSIA)
http://www.icsia.org
hbb@icsia.org

Shooting Investigation Class

By Daryl Clemens

I was recently able to conduct a shooting scene investigation class through the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Arkansas. This was a three day class with 1 1/2 days in the classroom and another 1 1/2 days on the range. We had three vehicles on the range, and the students were able to shoot them with a variety of weapons- and then they got to do the reconstruction work to put it all back together! We had a lot of fun, and everyone learned a lot as well.

We fired through the trunks of each of the vehicles with a rifle- one .223, one 7.62x39mm and one .30-06. We ricocheted bullets off the sides of the vehicles, made holes in the glass and body panels and (tried) to make an angled shot pellet pattern on each of the hoods. During the shooting, one of the team members shot video and copies of all the footage were provided to the students on DVD for later review. We also measured the location of all the ejected casings, and that data was also provided to the students. It's my hope to add to the ejection data each time the class is conducted.

Read More

On the Web

By Daryl Clemens

I came across a couple of interesting things on the web this month.

First up is a study on cartridge cases. The authors wanted to tag the hands of those who handled them, and to improve the DNA retention. Read the article on New Scientist: Here.

Second is an iPhone case that doubles as a stun gun. It doesn't appear that these are on the market yet, but it's probably just a matter of time: YellowJacket.

Book Review:

Black and White by Wes Albers
Review by Daryl Clemens

This is one of the best police procedural novels I've read in some time. It's written by a 20 year veteran of the San Diego PD, and you can tell that the author has "been there". It's a bit of a short novel, but a good read nonetheless. It reminds me a bit of Dean Garrison Jr.'s "Mad Badges", although it's not quite as funny as parts of that are. I got the Kindle edition which at the time of this writing is going for 99 cents. John Hatch is a patrolman in San Diego. He's got a rookie partner and a clueless Sgt., his personal life is also a mess. He catches a homicide and decides that he needs to do some follow up- and therein lies the story.

I first heard of this book in an email from the Force Science Institute- and if you haven't signed up for their emails yet, you should: http://www.forcescience.org/

Click the title above for the Amazon link, or ask your local bookseller to order you a copy. You won't be sorry.

Daryl

Product Spotlight-

This months spotlight is a custom superglue enclosure built for the Denver crime lab by Chamtech Systems. This is a collapsible, movable plastic enclosure large enough to fume an entire vehicle. It includes a venting system to exhaust the fumes, and can be folded up and rolled out of the way when not in use.

Product info sheet (pdf)

On the Scene:
Improvised Tools of the Trade

By Dick Warrington

This article originally appeared in Forensic Magazine® April 2011, Reprinted with Permission.

As Crime Scene Officers, we strive to be prepared to deal with any crime scene we are called to. But even with great training and a well-stocked crime kit, most of us will eventually end up at a scene where we run into a problem that we can’t easily solve with the knowledge and equipment we have at hand. Sometimes the techniques taught in classes and workshops, or the tools or equipment we have at our disposal simply won’t work given the specifics of the crime scene in front of us. When you find yourself in such a situation, you need to think outside the box. In this article, we’ll take a look at some examples of these problems and the solutions CSOs have developed in response.

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Product Spotlight: SecureDry™ Evidence Cabinets

SecureDry evidence drying cabinets are designed to provide a secure and dedicated area for drying wet

evidentiary items while creating a barrier to keep out the potential threat of cross contamination. The

cabinet utilizes pre-filtration, HEPA and Carbon filtration to minimize the potential for environment

cross contamination and employee exposure to putrid odors or biological material.

SecureDry is constructed from rigid white polypropylene that is thermally fused in order to create a

continuous chamber, eliminating structural cracks and crevices. The elimination of cracks and crevices

allows for ease of cleaning and maintenance between cases and minimizes the potential for bio-burden

build-up. An optional timed 254 nanometer UV light is available for chamber irradiation, further

reducing cross-contamination risk.

For more information contact Mystaire Misonix at 919-229-8511 or visit us on the web at

www.mystaire.com.

Cell Phone Apps-
Foster & Freeman Crime-lite Selector

By Daryl Clemens

So you have an alternate light source, but you don't use if often enough to remember what all the combinations of wavelength and filter are for the various types of evidence? Foster and Freeman have you covered with their Crime-lite(R) Selector app. This is a short review, because it's a pretty simple (albiet useful) app.

Read More

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