ICSIA Examiner November 2013
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Daryl W. Clemens, Editor

 

From the Editor

Well fall is officially here, and winter is just around the corner. We've already seen snowflakes flying here in Michigan. Now if someone would just tell the criminals that shooting season is over, we'd be all set.

Meanwhile, ICSIA is busy, busy getting ready for the spring conference. We'd love to see each and everyone of you there. Hayden could also really use a hand, see his letter below for details.

It's also a great time to start thinking about next year, and The Examiner will need another batch of articles and photos. This is your opportunity to share that interesting case, or useful technique with your colleagues around the world.  
 
Daryl

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

President's Message

Greetings!

The Holiday season is upon us. We at ICSIA wish everyone the best the holiday season can bring.
 
We are growing and need your help. We need a person to run the membership applications, certificates, and renewals. This would mean you would respond to emails, approve membership applications, validate their registration process, send out notices for renewal and keep a database of members.  Most of this is done electronically and all done through emails.  2 hours a week should be available to you to send out the certificates. Emails would need to be answered on a daily basis.  Any volunteers?
 
We also need volunteers for the conference next year.  If you plan on attending please let us know if you are available to assist us in various aspects of registration, hospitality room, speakers assistance, reading the rooms for the presenters, running errands, etc.   I am guessing at this point but 20 volunteers may be needed.
 
We will be finalizing the speakers and conference agenda after the first of the year. If you wish to give a presentation or do a workshop please let us know soon.
 
Stay safe!
Hayden B. Baldwin, Executive Director
International Crime Scene Investigators Association (ICSIA)
http://www.icsia.org
hbb@icsia.org
 

CSI training in Laos

by Crispian Barlow

I have been in Law Enforcement for over 30 years. 13 years with the Royal Hong Kong Police, 17 years as a protection and enforcement game ranger in South Africa, and the last five years as a technical advisor to the various agencies that run national parks in four South East Asian countries of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
 

Part of my duties are to write Law Enforcement Strategies for the parks, design minimum standards for patrol coverage, design Enforcement effectiveness protocols, and conduct training needs analysis (TNA) based upon the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Standards for Protected Area (PA) Staff. However, having found out that the rangers are not trained adequately, it’s also up to me to train them!


Photographing Fingerprints on a Mirror.

by Hayden Baldwin
 

Photographing a fingerprint on a mirror has its own challenges. There is more than one way of accomplishing this one of them was by using axial lighting discussed in the previous issue of The Examiner. See that article here:  Axial Lighting

Another way is by controlling direct lighting. The camera with macro lens is positioned so it is parallel to the mirror. If the camera is not perfectly parallel you will see an offset image (double images) of the fingerprint caused by the reflection. Once the camera is set properly then the lighting is held as close to the camera as possible to shine on the object, this is direct lighting. Side lighting will not work as well. 
Read more

 

ICSIA’s CSI Conference

Education, Training and Technology, May 13-15, 2014, Wyndham Riverfront Hotel, North Little Rock, Arkansas
 

More details coming soon- Keep checking our Conference Page for the latest.

On the Web- 

By Daryl Clemens

Investigating Sexual Violence: Emerging Solutions and Best Practices from NIJ and RTI International (sign-in required, free for law enforcement personnel).
Familial DNA Searching: Issues and Answers (Audio File) from NIJ
Developing Prints with Super Glue YouTube video from Make magazine. This is a good, simple video, useful for new investigators, or for sharing with a group if you are explaining the process.
 

New Board Member

ICSIA is pleased to welcome Steven W. Hulsey to the Board of Directors. 

 
Detective/C.S.I. Steven W. Hulsey is an 18 year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, located in Fayetteville Arkansas. Detective Hulsey is currently assigned to work major crimes, and conduct crime scene investigations. Det. Hulsey started his career in the uniform division of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center.  

Steve's full bio is Here

Product Spotlight- CA-3000 Fuming Chamber


 

Develop latent prints by positioning your evidence inside the CA Chamber, adding cyanoacrylate to the heating element and pushing the start button. Within minutes, high-quality latent fingerprints are developed. Our exclusive, patented design ensures potentially hazardous cyanoacrylate fumes generated during the development process never escape the chamber and must pass through the filtration system a minimum of twenty times before the purge process is complete.

For more information call 1-877-328-3912 or visit our website to learn more.

Above photo by Julian Dobson

Adverse Conditions

By Dick Warrington
 
This article originally appeared in Forensic Magazine®  December 2006, Reprinted with Permission.
 
As a crime scene officer, your first task is to secure and protect the scene. But when you’re faced with adverse weather conditions, barrier tape alone won’t be enough. For those cases, you have to think outside the box to find ways to save as much evidence as possible. Remember, if you don’t do your job well, you might lose valuable evidence. A case weakened by lost evidence will fall back on your shoulders. Don’t let that happen to you. In this issue, I’ll look at some strategies you can use for dealing with adverse conditions.
 

The Recovery of Human Remains:

A Crime Scene Perspective

Most recovery scenes are not thoroughly processed for evidence. Why not? Whether the recovery scene is the site of a surface recovery or a site containing buried human remains, most of these scenes are not thoroughly processed for evidence by the investigating law enforcement agency. Is it because of laziness on the officers' part or a lack of manpower? Or is it because of the lack of training in the proper procedures for the recovery of human remains? In most instances it is the latter, the lack of proper training.

Read More

Cell Phones

Google Keep

We've covered note taking programs here before, but Google has put their hat in the ring too, with Google Keep. This is a very lightweight note program, which allows you to make color coded "sticky notes" It's quick and handy, and Google stores all your notes for you in your Google Drive. You can take a photo as part of the note, or add one from your gallery. You can also set both time and location reminders for notes. So if you want to remember your grocery list automatically when you visit the grocery store, it will supposedly allow you to do that.  (I've not tested the location based reminders myself).

Why use this over another note program?  It's quick and easy to set up notes, and you can add a note widget to your screen which will allow you to scroll through your notes- including the pictures. Now Evernote is still my favorite note program, but it can be slow at times. Google Keep, at least thus far, has been very quick to respond to both viewing and creating notes.

You can get your copy of Keep: Here


 
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