Dr Helen Bandey MRSC. A report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Transcription

1 Crime Reduction via the Sharing of Fingermark Visualisation Best Practice Dr Helen Bandey MRSC 2014 A report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for giving me a unique opportunity to travel and broaden my knowledge in the field of fingermark visualisation and its integration with other forensic disciplines. I am also extremely appreciative to my employers, the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), for supporting my application and giving me the time to complete the travelling fellowship. These travels would not have been possible without the full support and overwhelming generosity of my hosts. In particular I am indebted to Robert Ramotowski (United States Secret Service), Dr Della Wilkinson (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and Alex Beaudoin (Sûreté du Québec) for their time and flexibility both before and during my visit, and for arranging a full and rounded schedule for the time that I spent within their organisation. I am also very appreciative of all of the staff within these organisations who gave up their time to talk to me about their fields of expertise and show me their facilities. 2

3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements...2 Table of Contents...3 An Introduction to Fingermark Visualisation...4 My Fellowship...6 Aims...6 Itinerary...6 Presentations...7 Travels within the USA...7 Stage 1: Minneapolis, Minnesota...7 Stage 2: Washington DC...8 Travels within Canada...11 Stage 3: Ottawa (and Toronto)...12 Stage 4: Montréal (and Québec City)...19 Summary of Main Recommendations and Implementation Plan...22 Conclusions

4 An Introduction to Fingermark Visualisation Fingerprints have been used for over 100 years as a form of personal identification. Even today, their use in criminal investigations is important, and fingerprints continue to produce more identifications than any other form of forensic evidence, including DNA. In order to utilise fingerprints for criminal investigations they must first be visualised as they are normally invisible to the naked eye. Once visible the fingermark (or mark ) is imaged and compared to suspect fingerprints or other crime scene marks, thus linking crimes to suspects (or vice versa) or linking scenes. Unfortunately there is not one single process that will visualise all marks as their constituents are varied and complex, and normally unknown, and the surfaces on which they are found are diverse. For example, marks may consist of a range of organic or inorganic chemicals excreted through the various sweat glands on the body, or they may contain contaminants picked up on the hands through contact with other materials, e.g. food or toiletries. This concoction of chemicals on the fingers can be transferred to any surfaces touched, and these surfaces can have different physical properties such as porosity, texture, cleanliness, colour etc. Because of this variability in both the properties of the mark and surface, many branches of science are utilised to visualise marks normally via chemical reactions, physical adhesions, or interactions with electromagnetic radiation. The Home Office has a long history in providing comprehensive advice on all aspects of fingermark visualisation, from strategic decision making to the practical implementation of processes, whether at crime scenes, or on items removed to a laboratory. This has typically been via the Manual of Fingerprint Development Techniques (MoFDT) which was first published in The Manual was adopted by every UK police force and by many overseas law enforcement agencies. It was typically updated every 3-4 years including the publication of the 2 nd edition in 1998, although the approach, style and design have not changed over this time period. The final update was in In the UK fingerprint evidence has traditionally been exploited by scientific support departments within the police service, whilst other forensic disciplines (e.g. DNA, bloodstain pattern analysis, trace etc.) have been exploited either in-part or wholly by outside forensic service providers. Typically, a scientific support department has: (1) a crime scene unit, for recovering marks at crime scenes; (2) a fingerprint laboratory, for enhancing marks on items that can be removed from the scene, or applying more complex processes to the scene, and; (3) a fingerprint bureau, where comparisons are made. In recent years there have been many changes to this structure. Some police forensic departments have merged with neighbouring forces in efforts to save money whilst continuing to provide a high level of forensic service provision. These larger departments are also growing their capability in forensic disciplines in addition to fingerprints. Other major changes include the introduction of the internationally recognised quality standards (ISO 17025) for forensic science, and the closure of the Forensic Science Service and subsequent opening up of the forensic market. In order to keep fingerprint guidance relevant and up-to-date, the Fingermark Visualisation Manual (FVM) was published by the Home Office in 2014 and replaced the MoFDT which had been the main source of guidance for the past 28 years. The FVM was produced to provide comprehensive information for practitioners involved in the recovery of evidential fingermarks in the UK, and was written for today s requirements, in particular the requirement of the ISO standard. The 4

5 change in name reflects the vastly different approach and there is more emphasis on competence and integrated forensics, in addition to containing a vast amount of detail on the processes themselves. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to be a lead author and Editor-in-Chief for this publication and it has been a big part of my life for the duration of its production (about 3 years) and subsequent implementation across the UK. I m very proud of the FVM, but as with all publications, it only documents what is known at the time of publication. Fingermark visualisation processes continue to evolve, enabling end users to find more marks on more surfaces, leading to more identification, detections and ultimately more crimes solved. In addition to this, substrates can change as materials and requirements change. A recent example of this is the increase in the amount of recycled Front cover of the Fingermark Visualisation Manual material of some papers and plastic bags. A future example is the change from paper to plastic monetary notes which will happen from Do we know how to recover fingermarks from such items? The FVM also contains a chapter that was not covered in MoFDT, and relates to an integrated approach to forensic science. This chapter barely scratches the surface, but highlights the need for a better understanding of the requirements of each forensic discipline so that evidence most relevant to the investigation can be maximised. In my opinion, this is an area that could be expanded in the future, either as part of the FVM, or more likely as part of a suite of forensic best practice manuals. It is clear that the FVM must be kept up-to-date, and there are some clear gaps in knowledge either around specific fingermark visualisation processes or more strategic areas including integrated forensics. In addition, there may be better, faster, cheaper ways of doing what is already done something the Home Office is very keen on, in particular doing more processes directly at the scene. My fellowship is based around these thoughts, and by seeing firsthand how international organisations tackle some of these issues will be invaluable in evolving the FVM into a greater publication, to the benefit of the UK. 5

6 My Fellowship Aims The overriding aim of my Winston Churchill Fellowship was: 1. To bring good practice in forensic evidence recovery back from North America to the UK so that policing can benefit from improved methods. The focus was on fingerprint recovery and its interactions with other forensic methods. This broad aim has three underlying objectives: 1. To gain knowledge on the rationale behind using fingermark recovery methods at scenes versus recovering items to a laboratory. This is most pertinent for the visits within Canada where geographic size may mean it is not feasible to send items to a laboratory. 2. To learn how organisations have implemented specific processes that are likely to be relevant to UK policing in the near future. In particular I investigated the use of Oil Red O and Physical Developer. 3. To learn how organisations maximise evidence recovery when multiple evidence types are required so that UK guidance can be built upon. Itinerary My fellowship lasted for five weeks and involved travelling to four main locations in USA and Canada (in bold) with several opportunistic trips added en-route (in italics). My itinerary was as follows: 10 th 15 th August International Association of Identification (IAI) Educational Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 18 th 22 nd August US Secret Service (USSS), Washington DC, USA 22 nd August Consolidated Forensic Services (CFS), Washington DC, USA 25 th August 5 th September Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 28 th August Toronto Police Service, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 29 th August Linde Canada Ltd, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 8 th 12 th September Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Montreal, Québec, Canada 11 th September Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Québec City, Québec, Canada 6

7 Presentations I prepared three presentations prior to my departure and delivered all to the USSS, RCMP and SQ: 1. The Police Service in the UK and Forensic Service Provision This presentation was a good ice-breaker and gave an honest appraisal about how policing in the UK is set-up and how forensic services are provided. It also gave the audience an appreciation of why I was interested in finding out about how their forensic services function. 2. An Overview of the Fingermark Visualisation Manual In addition to prepared slides, I gave a live demonstration of the interactive Manual. This was an opportunity to showcase the Manual, field questions and get direct feedback from those who have already been using it. 3. Fingerprint Research Projects at CAST This was an opportunity to discuss current or recent research projects that my organisation have been involved in and get feedback. In total, I delivered ten presentations during the five weeks of my travels. Travels within the USA Stage 1: Minneapolis, Minnesota I started my fellowship by attending the 99 th International Association of Identification (IAI) Educational Conference. The IAI is the oldest and largest forensic association in the world. Its annual conference focuses on educating those working in the field of forensic identification, investigation, and scientific examination of physical evidence. This part of my trip was part-funded by the Home Office and part-funded by the fellowship. This enabled me to stretch my fellowship funds to cover additional visits later on in my journey, and also enabled me to promote the Fingermark Visualisation Manual (FVM) to the predominantly North American audience. By starting my travels at the conference I had the opportunity to make contact with a large number of people from industry, academia and government organisations, from researchers to practitioners. Most of the contacts were made Lesley Hammer, President of IAI 2014, and myself at the Fingermark Visualisation Manual stand in the exhibition hall 7

8 through attending presentations (primarily on fingerprints, integrated forensics or footwear mark recovery) and delivering my own presentation about the FVM, and spending two days on the Home Office/TSO stand in the exhibition hall show-casing the FVM. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with some of the people who would be hosting me later in my travels. It was within the vast exhibition hall that I first came across Calvin Knaggs from Linde Canada Ltd and his Adroit TM FM300 fingermark development system, a product that caught my attention enough to warrant a detour later on in my schedule. Stage 2: Washington DC I flew from Minneapolis to Washington DC where I spent four days with my host, Robert Ramotowski, Chief Forensic Chemist within the Forensic Services Division of the US Secret Service. Forensic Services utilised by the Secret Service include the full range of questioned document tools, including fingerprints. They have long been recognized as one of the foremost questioned document laboratories in the world and are home to the world's largest ink library. The primary reasons for visiting this organisation were threefold: Firstly, I wanted to see first-hand exactly how Robert uses Physical Developer (see case study on pages 8-9); Secondly, I wanted to understand more about how evidence is retrieved from documents from an integrated forensics perspective; And finally, as with all visits to other facilities, I wanted to absorb as much as I could about general working practices within the fingerprints laboratory. During the time at USSS, I was given a good overview of how questioned documents are processed end-to-end, with in-depth focus on fingerprints. We spent a couple of hands-on days in the fingerprint laboratory, learning about the processes utilised in the lab, and going through in detail Robert s methodology for Physical Developer, and also Indandione. Both of these processes will need modifying in the next couple of years in the FVM, so learning as much as possible from an organisation that predominantly processes porous items is invaluable. In addition, we treated papers brought over from the UK to see if there were any unusual reactions caused by the different manufacturing processes used in each country. It was also interesting to see how ISO 17025, the quality standard that is being applied to forensic laboratories, has been implemented within the fingerprints area. As part of the visit I had a tour of the questioned documents section and got to see some of the many tools used within this field to assist with handwriting analysis, revealing indented writing, ink identification, and security feature viewing, to name a few. Most impressive was the ink analysis laboratory which houses their ink library one of only two places worldwide to have such a collection. From an integrated forensic perspective, the ink analysis would be done prior to fingerprints as many of the fingerprint processes would be detrimental to ink analysis. 8

9 CASE STUDY: Physical Developer What is it? Physical Developer is a fingermark visualisation process that detects marks on porous substrates. It is a chemical process that involves exposing the item or surface to three solutions in sequence. It works by preferentially depositing silver metal onto fingermark ridges resulting in grey/silver-coloured fingermarks. It is believed to detect the presence of sebaceous trapped eccrine constituents which assist deposition of silver during development of the fingermark. It was first used in the UK in 1976 and was included in the first edition of the Manual of Fingerprint Development Techniques in Scanning electron micrograph of silver particles deposited on a fingerprint ridge on a fibrous paper substrate Pros It is still the single most effective process for the detection of fingermarks on wetted or previously wetted porous substrates, e.g. items recovered from waterways or left outside in the rain. It can be used in sequence with other more effective processes on dry porous substrates and will find additional marks that would not have been found otherwise. Thus it is an essential process for serious crimes where full sequential processing is essential for maximising mark recovery. Cons It is not used as widely as it could be, or used to be, in UK fingerprint laboratories due to the time it takes to set-up, the observation required during processing, and its ability to go wrong, i.e. it is a labour intensive process relative to other porous process, such as Ninhydrin or DFO. The USSS Approach The USSS use Physical Developer on an almost daily basis. Their formulation is more stable than the formulation described in the FVM, and, by default, this stability eliminates many of the problems associated with the process. Their solutions are prepared in bulk and stored (for up to two months) until required, thus saving a considerable amount of preparation time. The success of this process is partly down to the instability of the solutions the silver ions don t want to be in solution and so will deposit on fingermark residue with relative ease. By making the solutions more stable, it may be that fewer fingermarks are detected, although research at USSS does not back up this statement and they are happy with the sensitivity of the process. continued... 9

10 CASE STUDY: Physical Developer continued Potential Impact to the UK Police Force Fingerprint Laboratories would be able to pre-prepare and store bulk solutions ready for use as and when needed. This would reduce significantly the time taken to do Physical Developer as currently it is recommended that solutions are made up fresh. This time saving would mean police force laboratories are more likely to use Physical Developer as a more routine process. Solution stability means that the process is more consistent and is less likely to go wrong. This would result in an increase in user confident with the process. Both points would result in practitioners who are more likely to use Physical Developer, which would then lead to an increase in the fingermark recovery rate from porous surfaces. Recommendation That more stable Physical Developer formulations are considered for use within UK Fingerprint Enhancement Laboratories, subject to appropriate validation studies under UK conditions. Whilst in Washington DC, Robert kindly arranged for me to visit the Consolidated Forensic Laboratory. This facility opened two years ago and houses all forensic services for the District of Columbia, although some areas are still to be fully functional. The DC area covers sixty-five square miles and has thirtynine law enforcement agencies, so the benefits of a consolidated service are self-explanatory. The building itself has been given the highest rating for energy and environmental design. I was given a tour by Dr Max The new Consolidated Forensic Laboratory, Washington DC Houck, Director, and was able to see some of the CFL capabilities such as DNA laboratories, material/trace laboratories, gun store, and the vast vehicle bay. I also spent time with Jeffrey Cover who gave me a good overview of their current fingerprint practices and issues they face. As in the UK, they are considering best ways to maximise both fingerprint and DNA of items such as firearms. By having all forensic disciplines under one roof, they are ideally set-up to understand the needs of each other s disciplines in order to maximise evidence recovery most appropriate to the investigation. 10

11 Travels within Canada Before going into detail about the specific visits within Canada, it is worth pointing out the geographical differences between the UK and Canada as this has a significant bearing on how forensic services are implemented in the two countries. See table below: UK Canada Population 63 million 35 million Geographic area 224,000 km 2 9,980,000 km 2 [Ontario: 918,000 km 2 ] [Quebéc: 1,542,000 km 2 ] Population density 258 people per km 2 3 people per km 2 Table showing the differences between the UK and Canada in terms of population, geographic area and population density Canada has approximately forty times the land mass of the UK, and just greater than half the UK population. The two provinces visited, Ontario and Québec, have approximately four and six times the UK land mass respectively. I found this staggering and when you see the UK superimposed on a map of Canada, you start to appreciate the logistical difficulties of providing forensic services: The size difference between Canada and the UK is apparent when one map is superimposed upon the other The majority of forensic services within Canada are provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). RCMP is the Canadian national police service, and provides a total federal policing service to all Canadians and police services to all provinces except Ontario and Quebéc. Forensic science within these two provinces is provided locally by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sûreté du Québec. 11

12 Stage 3: Ottawa (and Toronto) I travelled from Washington DC to Ottawa where I would spend the next two weeks of my journey, with a small detour to Toronto part way through my stay. The majority of the time was spent with my host Dr Della Wilkinson, Research Scientist within the Integrated Forensic Identification Services (IFIS) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. IFIS is the national policy centre for RCMP that supports forensic identification services and is based in Canada s capital city, Ottawa. It employs two researchers and three forensic identification specialists (police officers certified in fingerprint comparison) whose responsibility is to ensure forensic services are meeting modern technical standards and are fit-for-purpose for Canada s needs. In addition to supporting traditional forensic identification services, the team also provide a scientific input into specialist areas such as Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive response (CBRNE) crime scene examinations, an area that Della has significantly contributed towards over the past few years. The primary reason for visiting RCMP was: Dr Della Wilkinson and myself enjoying a day off at Willson Carbide Mill, Gatineau Park, Quebec To understand how fingerprint and forensic service provision is provided by the RCMP across Canada, with particular emphasis on learning about their approach to integrated forensic evidence recovery and crime scenes. For the duration of my stay in Ottawa, Della had kindly organised a schedule of visits to see various departments and/or speak to specific staff members. The highlights are outlined below. National Division Forensic Identification Service (FIS): There are more than seventy RCMP FIS units across Canada, providing a forensic service to all but Ontario and Québec. The National Division FIS is based in Ottawa, Ontario and focuses its expertise in sensitive, high-risk investigations into significant threats to Canada s political, economic and social integrity. They do not deliver normal policing forensic services within Ontario as this is provided locally by the Ontario Provincial Police. I met Sergeant Maryse Laurin, a uniformed forensic identification specialist, and we spent time in the fingerprint laboratory talking through her job role and comparing it to UK job roles to see the differences. Most apparent was the broad and diverse nature of an identification specialist job, and the fact that they are police officers rather than civilian staff as in the UK. A forensic identification specialist is trained to investigate, perform crime scene examinations, including all photography and recording of the scene. They are also trained to examine and process physical evidence including fingerprints, footwear impressions and tyre tracks, determine what evidence is of value, enhance 12

13 A photo of Maryse Laurin, Dr Della Wilkinson and Rolanda Lam taken during a tour of National Division FIS digital images, prepare evidence charts and present opinion evidence. In the UK many of these roles are performed by individual specialists in each field e.g. forensic laboratory officers (who are expert in fingermark visualisation), or fingerprint experts (who are experts at the comparison of fingerprints). Part of the reason for RCMP s approach goes back to the geographical size of Canada. In remote areas the Forensic Identification Specialist may be the only person in the area to investigate that crime, so they have to be able to turn their hand to all tasks. This approach remarkably means that Canada is able to provide forensic services to 80% of its landmass, which is incredible considering the vast amounts of wilderness across Canada, particularly in the north of the country. Maryse also informed me that, due to scene constraints, putting items on a plane and sending them back to a laboratory was often the preferred way to enhance fingermarks on small, removable items in this case the size of Canada did not seem to influence their decisions on what to process where. Forensic Assessment Centre (FAC): I met Ghislain Cormier a National Operations Specialist to discuss the role of FAC. FAC assess evidence collected by forensic identification specialists and sent in by investigators to see if it should be accepted for further forensic testing (such as toxicology, firearms, biology, trace or handwriting). By the time evidence gets submitted to the forensic laboratories it would have been treated for fingerprints already by the Forensic Identification Specialist. There are several reasons why FAC may reject evidence for further treatment. Firstly, they will not accept items in that have been poorly packaged and this in turn raises packaging standards. Secondly, they find out what the forensic question is that needs answering and its relevance to an investigation, e.g. if a positive DNA result doesn t add any value to the investigation then it will be rejected. So in summary, FAC will push evidence back to the investigator if they are not content that they meet their acceptance criteria. This check stage ensures that only the most productive of evidence is submitted for further forensics tests, thus saving time and money. There is a target turnaround time of forty days to complete all of the required analysis and send the results back to the investigator. Fingerprint Bureau: S/Sergeant Mike Leben gave me a comprehensive overview of the history and current practices within the RCMP fingerprint bureau. Their database contains records for 4.5 million individuals this is comparable to the UK s database when population differences are taken into account. Mike ran through the statistics relating to the value of the database and some of the current issues they face, and since my return I ve put Mike in contact with specialists in the UK to advise with these issues. From a fingermark visualisation perspective, I was encouraged to see the level of detail submitted by Forensic Identification Specialists, which included entirety shots alongside images of the marks themselves, and information about the type of visualisation process used and the surface on which it was found. This additional information is important in ensuring mark images are interpreted correctly and thus avoiding possible missed identifications. This level of 13

14 recording and communications is described in the new FVM as it is an area that could be improved in the UK. Forensic laboratory: The forensic laboratory contains all of the facilities expected of a modern forensic laboratory. I was given a tour of the laboratories which include biology, DNA, trace (including gunshot and explosive residue), drugs and alcohol, firearms and counterfeiting. Evidence would be submitted to the laboratory after fingermark recovery. Of particular interest was the difference in the DNA laws between Canada and the UK. In the UK, the retention period for fingerprints and DNA are the same. Both can be taken from a person upon arrest, but both must be destroyed at a later date if that person is not convicted (there are some special situations where there are exceptions to this law). Both can undergo a one-off speculative search against DNA and fingerprints obtained from crime scenes (i.e. those stored on the National DNA and Fingerprint Databases) whether convicted or not. In Canada, the laws for the taking and retention of fingerprints are similar to the UK, but the DNA laws are quite different. A suspect s DNA can be taken and compared to a specific crime scene sample only, but it cannot be used to speculatively search the national database this can only happen on conviction. The DNA and fingerprint databases in the UK are both big and of a comparable size. In Canada, the fingerprint database is significantly larger than the DNA database. With this in mind, it is clear why fingerprint recovery is typically done prior to DNA by forensic identification specialists, as it is more likely to lead to crime detection. I spent an extended period of time with John Marshall from the firearms unit to discuss the impact of fingermark visualisation on ballistics. For comparison, Canadian gun laws are more closely related to UK laws rather than US laws. Even though their gun controls are strict, they still get many guns coming into Canada from across the vast border with the USA. As with everything within the forensics department, fingerprints have been done before exhibits enter the firearms unit, and this was not considered a problem as firearms examinations are generally interested in the inside surfaces, whilst a fingerprint examination is generally interested in the outside surfaces. However, it is important that rust does not form on the inside of the gun something that can occur if waterbased fingerprint processes are used. Most countries have had significant cutbacks in forensic services over the past few years and Canada is no exception. Six firearm units across Canada have been reduced to three, although this does not seem to affect the level of work they do with firearms. This is a major advantage of having a national structure as it is easier to set-up regions of expertise. IFIS (Research laboratory and current projects): IFIS have their own laboratory for research purposes and regularly have students working on short term projects as well as running a handful of larger projects. In order for a new process or piece of equipment to be implemented across RCMP by this team, there must be clear proven benefits as it is no small task to deliver updated training to all forensic identification specialists across RCMP. This differs from my role at the Home Office where even minor improvements are delivered as guidelines and it is up to the local police force to decide whether or not to implement the changes. An important completed piece of IFIS research is the assessment of processes for a new and relevant substrate polymer banknotes. The UK will have similar notes from 2015 and findings from the RCMP study are already influencing current Home Office research in this area. 14

15 Rapid DNA is an area that the RCMP IFIS unit are currently interested in, as are we in the UK. They are considering the future impact of being able to analyse DNA samples in fast time i.e. within a few hours rather than days, and are considering two commercial systems that have this capability. Also within the DNA area, they are looking at the impact of fingerprint reagents on DNA, but more from the perspective of whether or not the chemicals impact on DNA extraction. Other projects include: long term joint studies with other countries looking at the forensic recovery from chemical/biological incidents; studying the efficiency of identifications (an interesting area which, if successful, has the potential to streamline checks for straightforward comparisons, whilst ensuring a more robust method for complex mark comparisons), and; work within the Canadian Friction Ridge Working Group on guidelines for areas that forensic identification specialists could testify to. Canadian Police College (BPA, footwear, and fingerprint training): I ve always been interested in how evidence recovery is taught to practitioners, or how a new process is implemented amongst end users. If done well, a practitioner is more effective at their job, the employer will get more return for their investment, and more crimes will be solved. I have spent 14 years inputting into UK fingermark recovery training courses and was very keen to see how specialists are trained within RCMP. I visited the Canadian Police College (CPC) in Ottawa on a couple of occasions during my visit and got to see specialists in blood pattern analysis (BPA), footwear and see the training centre itself. Sergeant Beverley Zaporozan is a member of the Forensic Identification Training team and teaches BPA to trainees. She gave me an overview of their approach to bloody scenes and used case studies to demonstrate her points. Only experienced forensic identification specialist can go on to be a BPA specialist, although a basic 40 hour awareness course is given to all. A BPA specialist would get additional training, including a one-year understudy. This model seems to work well and has also been used by Australia and New Zealand. Sergeant Martin Lelievre is a forensic identification specialist and teaches footwear at the CPC. The use of footwear marks for intelligence purposes is not as common in Canada as it is in the UK, but instead all marks go on to a full comparison. Many of the recovery processes were similar to the UK, although forensic identification specialists may image electrostatic lifts or gelatine lifts at the scene as they are fully aware of degradation caused through packaging and transport. There is a good attitude toward getting the best possible image of a mark (of any kind) as ultimately it is the same person that has to make the The fingerprint training laboratory at the Canadian Police College identification and go to court i.e. it is directly in their interest. Martin also gave me a tour of the facilities used to train forensic identification specialists including the laboratories for chemical 15

16 treatments and light source examination, photographic areas, and the comparison room used for teaching fingerprint and footwear comparisons. Police training is done at the RCMP facility in Regina, Saskatchewan. Once qualified, an RCMP officer may choose to specialise and become a forensic identification specialist where they will receive training not too far from the sort of training that UK crime scene examiners/laboratory officers/fingerprint and footwear experts receive. This broad role, along with a geographically flexible workforce (some employees typically will move around every 2-3 years) ensures that RCMP can provide a service to remote areas of Canada having specialists within narrow job roles as we do in the UK is not considered an option. In order to keep up-to-date, forensic identification specialists are updated by either communication, online training and they get formal refresher courses every two years. In addition, job-shadowing follows formal training which is something the UK could learn from a trained person isn t necessarily a competent one. CBRNE and Tour of Mobile Laboratory: S/Sergeant Doug Young and Sergeant Diana O Brien gave me a very informative tour of RCMP s mobile laboratory, which is housed inside a large van and capable of dealing with contaminated exhibits. The laboratory is extremely well designed and fitted with all of the equipment used by a forensic identification specialist. The van is capable of being mobilised to any part of Canada should such an event require it. The van s primary purpose is to screen items, although it does have full identification capacity. Sergeant Diana O'Brien (left) and S/Sergeant Doug Young (right) showcasing the RCMP mobile laboratory 16

17 As mentioned on page 7, I had made contact with Calvin Knaggs from Linde Canada Ltd whilst in Minneapolis. He is the inventor of the Linde Adroit TM FC300 Latent Fingerprint Development System and has been very innovative in his approach to mark development by exploiting vapour-phase reaction/interactions between chemicals and marks. As it happens, Calvin is based in Mississauga a town on the outskirts of Toronto. Toronto is just a five hour bus journey from Ottawa, and with Della s help and support with travel logistics and rearranging my schedule within the RCMP, I was able to visit Calvin and see firsthand the equipment that grabbed my attention three weeks previously. Calvin Knaggs and myself at the Linde Canada Ltd facility in Mississauga Whilst at the Linde facility, Calvin gave me an overview and demonstration of the equipment, including its development from an idea, to the production of a proof-of-concept system, to the production of the current prototype system. The following case study summarises the equipment and potential imact to the UK: CASE STUDY: LInde Adroit TM FC300 Latent Fingerprint Development System What is it? The equipment: It is a commercially available piece of equipment capable of visualising fingermarks on a wide range of surfaces, irrespective of the surface porosity. The equipment consists of a vacuum chamber in which items are placed. A selected development tablet (see below) is then sublimed and the vapours carried into the development chamber via a carrier gas where mark development occurs. The tablets: A range of tablets are available that target different components of fingermarks. The majority of the tablets are made up of the active chemicals that are used in either liquid or vapour phase traditional fingermark visualisation processes (e.g. cyanoacrylate, Basic Yellow 40, Ninhydrin, iodine), although there is also a new proprietary dye tablet. Continued... The prototype AdroitTM FC300 Latent Fingerprint Development System 17

18 CASE STUDY: Linde Adroit TM FC300 Latent Fingerprint Development System continued Pros It is simple to use. All of the chemicals are applied in the gaseous phase. There is a growing choice of development tablet which target different components of the mark. These can be evaporated sequentially or even co-evaporated. Running costs should be cheap as only the tablets will be required. Cons There have been no published comparisons made with current fingermark visualisation processes either by Linde Canada Ltd or by an independent body. The process is not well understood. Initial set-up costs are likely to be expensive as the equipment will need to be purchased. Only one system has been sold, probably due to the lack of any validation studies either by Linde or other organisations. Future Possibilities Calvin Knaggs has produced a system that, I believe, has real potential to change the way fingermarks on removable items are developed. In my opinion, if the processes prove to be at least comparable to current methods, then it is not beyond the realms of possibility to have a simple system that can process most small exhibits that get submitted to a laboratory for treatment. Taking it one step further, it may even be possible to have generic tablets that target either porous or non-porous surfaces, thus simplifying the fingermark visualisation process considerably. In this case, the tablet could be a mixture of chemicals that target main constituents (rather than specific constituents) within fingermarks. Potential Impact to the UK: Cost savings to the police by removing expensive HFE solvent costs (estimated annual savings of 20,000 per year per police force). Time savings to the police by removing other more complex and time-consuming processes. It is less destructive to the item and mark than traditionally chemical processes and therefore less likely to be less destructive to the recovery of other types of evidence. Recommendation I strongly recommend that this technology and the vapour-phase approach to fingermark visualisation are thoroughly investigated within the UK. 18

19 Stage 4: Montréal (and Québec City) For the final leg of my trip I flew from Ottawa, Ontario to Montréal, Québec to spend a week with Alexandre (Alex) Beaudoin at the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). SQ are the provincial police for Québec, although they do not provide policing within the local area of Montréal, as this is provided by the Service de Police de La Ville de Montréal (SPVM) (although laboratory facilities at SQ are shared). Alex is the scientific and technical advisor within the Forensic Identification Division. The primary reasons for visiting this organisation were twofold: Firstly, to expand my knowledge on the use and benefits of Oil Red O; Secondly, to see how forensic science at SQ is performed compared to a UK police force. During my time at SQ Alex had kindly arranged a schedule which allowed me to visit various departments and spend enough time in the laboratory to learn about Oil Red O. He even managed to fit in a daytrip to the historic city of Québec, the capital of the province of Québec, to visit to a different SQ fingerprint laboratory. The main findings are outlined below. Scenes of Crime: I was given a good overview of the role of the crime scene investigator (CSI) by Sergeant Luc Gagnon. He is responsible for making sure that there is crime scene cover across the SQ area should it be needed, and that they have the necessary equipment to carry out their job. It was interesting to talk through their approach to major crime scenes in rural or remote areas, where crimes of this type are extremely rare. It is difficult for such areas to maintain forensic staff competent in all aspects of crime scene examination when they may use some of the tools infrequently (once a year at most). For this reason, SQ will often send an experienced CSI from Montréal to help the CSI in the remote area. This approach minimises mistakes made by inexperienced staff. This seems to be a pragmatic approach and offers a value for money solution, and the UK could learn from this, especially with the use of processes such as luminol 1. SQ also provide basic fingerprint kits to police officers as it is not always possible to get a CSI to the scene due to the vast area that SQ cover (which leads to prohibitive costs). Alex Beaudoin, myself and Sergeant Luc Gagnon in Quebec City In general CSIs do not lift many powdered marks, instead preferring to photograph marks in-situ. In the UK, the majority of powdered marks are lifted, partly due to the fact that aluminium powder is most commonly used, it lifts well, and due to its highly reflective nature can be difficult to image on the surface. Many countries prefer to use granular powders which are easier to image directly. Items recovered from the crime scene can be sent to the fingerprint laboratory for processing by a permanent laboratory technician this is similar to the way that UK scientific support operates. As with RCMP, after basic CSI training, the staff member is mentored for up a year to build their level of competence. 1 Luminol is a spray reagent commonly used to search for traces of blood at crime scenes. It reacts with the haem constituent of blood to produce a blue chemiluminescence, but can also react with other materials to yield false positives. Its use and interpretation require a high level of competence from the user. 19

20 Fingerprints: I spent time in the fingerprint laboratory with Alex learning as much as I could about Oil Red O - a process that is currently not used in the UK. However it does now feature in the Fingermark Visualisation Manual as a niche application process, albeit with limited processing instruction. For further information on this process see the case study on the next page. The Oil Red O research is one of several projects that have been carried out by summer students which Alex has had access to for the past few years. This year s student is looking at the number of Marie-Eve Gagné, laboratory technician, accessing the Fingermark marks developed as a function of time for the Visualisation Manual within her laboratory range of processes that they use in their laboratory. I spent some time with Marie-Eve Gagné, the laboratory technician, and one of the highlights of the trip was seeing her successfully access and navigate around the Fingermark Visualisation Manual directly on a computer in their laboratory. I was so proud I had to take a photo and include it in this report as evidence of a successful implementation! Forensic Services: Forensic services for SQ are provided by Laboratoire de Science Judiciares et de Medicine Legal. They are not part of SQ but a government organisation and based within the SQ headquarters in Montréal. I was given a tour of the many laboratories, including biology, blood/semen screening, serology, their examination room, research and development and firearms. Evidence that is fragile (e.g. trace) or prone to contamination (e.g. DNA) is recovered first, but as with RCMP, I was extremely impressed with the knowledge that different specialists had with regards to minimising damage for subsequent examinations (e.g. fingerprints). The tour of the firearms unit confirmed everything that I had previously learned from visiting units within RCMP and back in the UK, and it is worth noting that I haven t yet found anywhere that has success with recovering DNA or fingermarks from fired cartridge cases. This is currently an active area of research in the UK, but I believe studies need to Tour of the Laboratoire de Science Judiciares et de Medicine Legal focus on whether any components of the mark survive the firing process, before determining the visualisation process. 20

21 CASE STUDY: Oil Red O What is it? Oil Red O is a fingermark visualisation process that detects marks on porous substrates. It is a chemical process that involves the application of a solution to the item or surface followed by washing with water. It interacts with the fats and lipids in latent fingermarks and some greases to give a red/brown-coloured product. Pros It is a cheap, simple and quick process. Cons Its effectiveness drops considerably with the age of the mark. The SQ Approach Alex has developed this process and now makes full use of it within his laboratory. It would be used after Ninhydrin, but before Physical Developer, as part of a sequential processing plan for treating porous items. Recommendations Oil Red O is not one of the most effective processes for developing latent marks on porous substrates. However, it may add value when other processes in the porous sequence cannot be used. For example, amino acid reagents are ineffective on wetted papers, and some papers can degrade or give high levels of background development with Physical Developer. SQ Alex Beaudoin demonstrating Oil Red O in his laboratory is one of the few organisations exploiting Oil Red O and I therefore recommend that: Further validation studies are conducted to establish whether or not there is value in using Oil Red O on porous substrates in the UK. Potential Impact to the UK Oil Red O could provide a simple option to fingerprint laboratories for treating wetted papers that are known to be destroyed by Physical Developer, thus giving them a chance of finding fingermarks on such items. 21

22 Summary of Main Recommendations and Implementation Plan Recommendation 1: That the findings from this trip are shared with relevant members of staff within my organisations. Recommendation 2 (page 10): That more stable Physical Developer formulations are considered for use within UK Fingerprint Enhancement Laboratories, subject to appropriate validation studies under UK conditions. Recommendation 3 (page 18): I strongly recommend that this technology [the Linde Adroit TM FC300 Latent Fingerprint Development System] and the vapour-phase approach to fingermark visualisation are thoroughly investigated within the UK. Implementation Plan Within the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST) the following staff members may be interested in the findings of my report: 1. The service manager for the Evaluation and Validation of Fingermark Development Processes service. They will be interested in all three recommendations, plus the additional pieces of informative information too numerous to mention in this report. For that reason, I will also share my daily diary and any other information gained. It is hoped that recommendations two and three are taken forward within this service in the future. 2. The lead domain specialist for fingerprints. This person is also the chemistry functional home manager and is responsible for resourcing most forensic science projects within CAST. 3. The forensic capability advisor. They are responsible for overseeing forensic science in CAST. 4. The head of delivery within CAST. In addition to circulating the report to those listed above, I would like to explore other avenues to ensure that recommendation three is taken forward. These include: 5. Exploring the possibility of conducting a feasibility studies on the Linde Adroit TM system via the Innovation service. 6. Exploring other funding streams such as the Police Innovation Fund. 7. Making introductions between Calvin Knaggs, Linde Canada Ltd and relevant UK organisations with the aim of improving routes to market. 22

23 Conclusion During my five weeks of travelling around the USA and Canada, I have received an overwhelming amount of information/advice/guidance from a broad range of forensic organisations that have expanded my views and knowledge on fingermark visualisation and its integration with other forensic disciplines. For clarity, only key points have been documented within this report, but beneath these broad descriptions lay a level of detail that will be invaluable for improving forensic science practices within the UK. The advancement in vapour-phase fingermark visualisation processes is particularly exciting. The multi-process vacuum system, invented by Calvin Knaggs from Linde Canada Ltd has huge potential if it is researched further by applied science organisations in collaboration with end users, so that the operational benefits can be determined. This wasn t the only vapour phase process of interest. Calvin has also done work on alternative Vacuum Metal Deposition processes using aluminium instead of traditional gold/zinc. Whilst at the IAI conference, I also spoke to a Dutch forensic company, BVDA, as they have made a one-step fluorescent superglue product. This is another vapour-phase process that removes the need for applying liquid-based dyes, and is one of three similar products to make it to market in the last two years. I have since received a sample for inclusion into comparison studies that are currently taking place within my organisation. I have gained a wealth of useful information for two specific fingermark visualisation processes (Physical Developer and Oil Red O) from two scientists (Robert Ramotowski and Alex Beaudoin respectively). Over the years, both Robert and Alex have conducted extensive research into these processes and have a depth of understanding greater than most within this field, particularly when it comes to the practical use of them in an operational environment. The knowledge gained from seeing how other organisations have implemented such processes, and overcome known problems with them, will directly feed into the current research programme at my organisation, and ultimately form part of an update to the Fingermark Visualisation Manual. In addition to the scientific findings, it was interesting to compare the UK policing and forensic structure to Canada s structure. Both systems have evolved to meet the requirements of that country, but there were ways of working within Canada that may be beneficial to the UK. The time spent at RCMP gave me a very good insight into the benefits of a coordinated national approach to policing and forensics across the majority of Canada. An obvious benefit includes the fact that some forensic services are expensive and benefit from being shared across large areas/populations. In times of austerity, department closures have meant that some laboratories have been closed, but there is always somewhere across Canada and within RCMP that can do the work. I was also extremely impressed by how staff looked outside of their field of expertise and understood that the needs of the investigation were more important than their own department s successes. This may be because all forensic science within a case is typically delivered by one organisation, whereas the UK may use in-house services and those provided by the private sector or other government organisations. Or it may be because UK departments are very target driven, and each area has to prove that it is important and value for money, thus there may be a level of competition between departments in terms of who gets the credit for the detection. With regards to scene use of fingermark visualisation processes, I was surprised (considering Canada s vast landscape) that the majority of processing is not necessarily done at the scene. Their preference was to take removable 23