ICSIA Examiner's Newsletter

 

ICSIA Examiner March 2014
Daryl W. Clemens, Editor
 

From the Editor

Welcome to another edition of The Examiner. The big news for this edition is the conference. (You are all coming right!?) Seriously, this is a great opportunity, and it's affordable.
We've also got another good article from Dick Warrington, and links to pieces on DNA, Death Investigation and Investigative Interviewing.
 
Daryl
 
Got comments/questions or want to submit an article for The Examiner?  e-mail me: Daryl W. Clemens

President's Message

Greetings!

Spring is here!  Well it some places. Here in the USA it has been an unusual winter with excessive cold and snow. The warmer weather usually means more activity in our world. Be careful out there!

Our CSI Conference will be here soon and we are getting prepared. I have written an article about the conference and you will see it in this newsletter.

Membership continues to grow. We appreciate it if you pass the word about ICSIA to your contacts. The more members we have the more we can do for the members.

As we grow we need more volunteers. We are asking for volunteers for the Secretary position and a Membership Chair.  Daryl has indicated this is his last year so we need an Editor for the newsletter.  Each of those positions are busy positions but manageable without taking up all your time. Please give this serious consideration. 

Stay safe out there!

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

CSI Conference 2014

May 13-15th, 2014 we will be hosting the 1st Annual CSI Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. We have Presenters from various parts of the USA and even one traveling from the UK !   Topics being presented are “Back to Basics”, Certification process, Chain of Custody from Crime Scene to Courtroom, Blood Spatter Documentation, Underwater CSI, Shooting scene reconstruction, Infant Death Scenes, Arson scene processing, Working with Forensic Light Sources, Electronic Crime Scene Investigation, Death Scene Check List, Examination Quality Photographs, Fingerprint enhancement on recycled plastic material, crime scene reconstruction and a round table discussion.  As you can see we have a great conference lined up!  This does not include the night open mike case presentations and possibly a night photography demonstration class.  If the attendance permits we are planning on several breakout sessions with topics like Prints on Difficult Surfaces, Demo of a new blood stain string device and lasers used in documenting blood stain patterns. Additional breakouts may be on 3D Photography, PanoramaVR and IR Photography along with Digital Asses Case Management and Forensic Light Source.

Chandler Police Department's New CSI Vehicles








 
Daniel R. Desjardins has provided us with several photos of his departments new Ford Transit vans.
 
"Here are some images of our newest crime scene vans. They are 2013 Ford Transit Connect Vans. We have been told that we are the first in Arizona to be using them as crime scene vans. 
We chose these for several reasons. First, as a purpose built urban delivery vehicle, they have a large amount of cargo space in a smaller vehicle. This makes it them easier to maneuver in the City than the extended Chevy vans we were using. Maintenance and fuel costs are also expected to be lower with these vans. So far are CSTs are loving them. They are still getting use to the smaller size, but love the way they handle."
 
You can see the rest of the photos- Here

Keeping Things in Perspective

by Daryl Clemens
 
I was sitting here putting the newsletter together, and glancing through a supply catalog looking for something I could share with you all. A new tip or trick or even an old one. It occurred to me that you can now buy an awful lot of stuff. Some of it is, frankly, damn expensive. If you are producing a TV show where you pretend to investigate crime, you've probably got a couple of everything. Those of us actually doing the work, often don't most of what's listed in the catalog.

Read More

On the Web- 

By Daryl Clemens

Solving Cold Cases with DNA: The Boston Strangler Case
Improving Forensic Death Investigation
An interview(video) with Ray Bull about investigative interviewing can be found Here
Inhalant Abuse is an ongoing problem. Information on trends, types of inhalants and an awareness guide for law enforcement can be found Here

Online Training

ICSIA collaborated with the Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Arkansas to produce an online training course: Crime Scene First Responder For The Uniformed Officer
 
2014 Full Line Laboratory Safety Solution Catalog from AirClean® Systems are now available.
 
For more than 20 Years AirClean® Systems has manufactured ductless fume hoods, traditional exhaust hoods and laminar flow clean benches with industry leading microprocessor controls and advanced filtration technology. 
 
The 2014 catalog is available introducing new and updated photos, specs and overviews on our full range of products to protect the operator, the process or both.
 
Founded in 1992, AirClean® Systems is the largest North American manufacturer of ductless hoods, workstations and enclosures.  We continue to develop and produce a complete range of solutions for protecting the operator or process from toxic vapors, fumes, gases and particulate.  Our ductless fume hoods are a true “green product”, using much less energy and natural resources than traditional exhaust fume hoods.  AirClean® Systems utilizes years of laboratory application data and experience to ensure the proper safety solution is in place.
 
Copies of the AirClean® Systems 2014 catalog can be requested Here
Above photo by
Birmingham Conservation Trust
 

Crime Scene Observation

By Dick Warrington

This article originally appeared in Forensic Magazine® August/September 2008, Reprinted with Permission.

Those of you who watched the early episodes of CSI Las Vegas may remember Grissom staring at the crime scene and then saying, “How did you die? Talk to me.” His partner would then explain to the startled officers—and the viewers at home—that the scene “talked” to Grissom and helped him solve the crime. Everyone thought Grissom’s behavior was funny, made just for TV. While Grissom may have gone about things in a quirky way, he was actually pointing out something that is true: crime scenes can talk to you. In this article, I’ll explain how to use careful observation to get the crime scene to talk to you about the crime. Quoting Sherlock Holmes in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, “You see but you do not observe.”

To begin with, you have to realize that a crime scene is really an accumulation of things that, when taken together and analyzed, tell the story of the crime. But in order to understand that story, you first need to find and collect all of the evidence. Here’s where careful observation comes in. Everyone’s first instinct is to ignore the big picture and head directly to the body or the central area where the crime occurred. But that kind of tunnel vision can lead you to misread the case. And if you just rush in, you risk contaminating or destroying crucial evidence. After all, the suspect had to get in and out of the scene somehow. Chances are, he or she left some evidence behind. If you pay attention, you can find that evidence.

Read More

Device Info Live Wallpaper

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Free to download- Here
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