9/20/2009 6:00:00 AM It's CSI, but not what you see on TV Technology has changed aspects of police work
ERIN TAYLOR/Miner
Deputy Karl Albright enters a paddle from a domestic violence incident into evidence in the Mohave County Sheriff's Office's "Bag and Tag" room.
KINGMAN - Law enforcement officials call it the CSI effect: The public's belief that police can solve any crime in 48 hours working off nothing more than a drop of blood or a single hair.
The reality is more complex than that, police say. After all, how many crime dramas show all the paperwork involved in actual police work?
Most crime scene investigators will happily admit that technology has revolutionized the way evidence is gathered and processed.
"The digital camera has changed everything," said Det. Greg Kenyon, who works in the crime lab at the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
Kenyon said he takes an average of 350 photographs of a crime scene.
"Almost in every single case, I find something after the fact in the photos that I didn't see at the scene," Kenyon said.
When the Sheriff's Office moved into its new facility at 600 Beale Street in late 2003, the agency invested almost $100,000 in equipment for the crime lab. That includes everything from a forensic science workstation that will process items for fingerprints to a machine that will dry out blood-soaked items to be stored as evidence.
"You can't store anything wet because the blood will mold and mildew," Kenyon said.
Kenyon said lifting prints is much harder in reality than the television shows make it look. Most suspects wear gloves while committing a crime, and even if a print is left, it is often smeared.
Prints that can be recovered are examined and photographed. Kenyon can then make an impression of the print using superglue and a special chamber that creates an environment of 80-percent humidity. The superglue heats to the point of creating fumes, and those fumes then attach themselves to the amino acids left in fingerprints, creating an impression of the print.
DNA can be the most damning evidence against a suspect and that, too, is often misunderstood by the public, Kenyon said. People leave DNA on almost everything they touch, but it isn't something that can be processed overnight. DNA from a homicide case can be processed in two weeks, if police need the evidence quickly. Otherwise, it can take anywhere from two to fours months to process DNA results.
And even then, the police have to have a match for that DNA. Sgt. Layne Hinrichs, who oversees the entire evidence-processing department, said DNA for known and unknown suspects is entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) national database. The database goes through several cycles a year in which it looks for matches. DNA has more than a dozen points that can be matched.
A suspect in a 2003 Mohave Valley murder case was recently found by using DNA evidence.
"It's really difficult for a guy to get away with anything anymore because of scientific advances," Hinrichs said.
Before the evidence is ever handled by a technician, it is processed and catalogued with a bar code. A written record of every person to handle the evidence is also carefully maintained.
"It is very important to maintain the proper chain of custody for the evidence," Hinrichs said.
Only a handful of people have access to the evidence room. The physical evidence never leaves custody without a court order. A small room is set aside for lawyers and attorneys wanting to view the evidence.
That evidence includes anything and everything that could be associated with a crime or unnatural death. Stacks of shelving house everything from burglary tools to a cache of weapons. Guns and drug paraphernalia outnumber any other type of evidence. Some guns have been relinquished by spouses after the original owner passed away, but most of them were seized by police.
Some of the evidence is jarring, such as a baby's bouncer seat being held for a homicide case. There are also several computer hard drives containing child pornography files.
Some of the evidence shows the creativity of drug users, including one pipe fashioned out of a metal pipe and a gas mask that can be hooked up to a tube as an improvised smoking device.
Other items include a bowling ball, an urn, several horse saddles, a Stratocaster guitar and a headstone from 1997.
"You name it, it's here," Hinrichs said.
A separate room holds bagged evidence in homicide cases. The room also contains seven refrigerators that hold physical evidence such as blood, semen and other bodily fluids used as evidence in driving under the influence cases, rape and homicide. The units are backed up by a generator in case of a power failure.
Found items are kept for at least 90 days. Evidence used in a case is kept until the cases are resolved or until the statute of limitations runs out. Evidence in homicide cases is kept for a minimum of 25 years. DNA taken as part of a rape kit is kept indefinitely if there is no suspect in the case.
But for all the advances of technology, sometimes it's good old-fashioned detective work that solves a case. Earlier this year, Kenyon was able to determine the identity of remains found in the Bull Mountain area. A dog's bones were also found at the scene. A rabies tag on the dog collar led to a veterinarian's office in Florida, which ultimately led police to learn the man's identity. The man, who was missing for a year, is believed to have died by suicide.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, September 21, 2009
Article comment by:
decline of intelligence
You know the public nowdays..
See it on TV an its REAL.
I cant believe how mentally weak our nation has become the last 30 yrs...No wonder the world laughs at us.
