ICSIA's Newsletter May 2015
ICSIA Examiner May 2015
Kyprianos Georgiou, Editor
 

From the Editor


 (The above image was taken from this site)

I send you my regards from Britain. The weather has now started to settle and we cannow see the sunshine from time to time and it most certainly feels like it is almost summer.

It is now May 2015 and it has been a learning curve for myself for the last couple of months. I have been using several websites and tools trying to familiarize myself with writing "The Examiner" and thanks to the help and advice from Daryl, this has journey been been a joy. 

Over the next few editions of "The Examiner" we will be trialing the use of specific themes whereby several aspects of crime scene investigation will be explored. This month's edition, we will be exploring earprints. Throughout this newsletter, I have include a series of "short paragraphs" where different sections of them are underlined. If you click on these sentences they will open new websites for more information and more details about earprint evidence.  

Should you have any questions or comments or if you would like to contribute in future newsletters, please do not hesitate to contact me through this link.K.Georgiou@tees.ac.uk

Director's Letter

Greetings Members!

By the time this is published our CSI Conference will be in the final stages and begin on the 19th. I hope to see many of you there!

I have been working out the of the country for the past month training the Scenes of Crimes Technicians in Belize. They will have graduated the almost year long program on the 14th and several of them will be at the conference. It is the same program I have been teaching the last 18 years at the University but expanded for Jamaica and Belize. It will be good to see them both at the conference.

At the conference we will also bestow Certification to the two that have recently earned it from the British Virgin Islands.  If you are not familiar with the Certification process you will find it posted on our web site.

Speaking of the web site we have a problem.  I have been running the web site from the beginning and I have used a program called FrontPage which has not been supported by MicroSoft for several years. I have just received news that our current web host service will no longer support FrontPage as of June 1st.  Bad timing as it is difficult to do anything drastic with it while I am out of country. But it is also time to upgrade the web site. I will be seeking someone to take over the web site, unfortunately we are still at the volunteer phase. The funding for full support web design and running it is just not there, yet.  So if you or someone you know wants to volunteer and have web site design experience we would love to hear from you. If you have any suggestion we also love to hear from you.  I will do everything I can to make the web site does not crash while we seek additional help.

Daryl Clemens has done an outstanding job in being the Editor from the beginning. He has opted to step down as the Editor and Kyprianos (Kyp) Georgiou will be the new editor with this issue being his first. Please give Kyp your full support. Thanks Daryl for all the hard work over the years.

Hopefully see you all at the conference!

Hayden B. Baldwin, Executive Director
International Crime Scene Investigators Association (ICSIA)

ICSIA's 2015 Conference


New Orleans, Louisiana (Jefferson Parish) 
Welcomes the 2015 ICSIA Conference.
May 19th-21st, 2015

Just a gentle remind that the conference is in less than a week. If you haven't done so, please make sure you register here. There is a great agenda put together and there is no doubt in my mind that is will be another incredible conference. Please find the the agenda for the conference here
 
More details will be posted on icsia.org as they become available, but please make plans now to attend. Looking forward seeing you all there.

Ear Prints and their use in Forensic Science

Ear-print evidence has been found to be unique to individuals and their use in forensic science was seen to convict criminals in courts. In Germany (2012), a burglar was convicted due to ear-print evidence. He made the mistake of pressing his ear to front doors to check if anyone was home before entering leaving his ear-print at the scene. Fingerprints have long been used in criminal cases and their uniqueness was proved by many. In 2013, a 26 year old man was caught after leaving his ear prints at 80 burglaries. In 2001, prisoners in the UK appealed against the use of earprint evidence due to the lack of evidence to prove individuality.

This has led to many debates which has helped police forces all over the world to develop Standard Operating Procedures for ear-print comparisons explaining the impact this would have on ear-print identification. C
or van der Lugt was one of the many who have worked on advancing the use of ear-print evidence and he has worked extensively on perfecting the use of ear-print evidence during criminal investigations. Therefore, though not as unique as fingerprints, this technique can be considered as "another tool in the forensic scientists' toolbox"

On the Web 

This is an interesting article about the use of earprints as evidence (.pdf)
http://www.forensicscience.pl/pfs/46_lugut.pdf

A review of human ears and how they can be used for comparison purposes (.pdf)
http://omicsonline.org/human-earprints-a-review-2155-6180.1000129.pdf

Breakthrough in ear-print identification
http://www.le.ac.uk/press/press/earprint.html 

Review of ear-prints as evidence
http://phys.org/news11177.html
 

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
 

Mystaire 2015 Catalog

Mystaire® is pleased to announce the release of the new 2014-2015 catalog.  Mystaire® has manufactured ductless laboratory safety products for more than 50 years. The new 2014-2015 catalog includes ductless hoods, workstations and enclosure as well as photos, specs and overviews on a full range of products to protect the operator or process.
 
Featured is the new Aura® Elite ductless fume hood with the state-of-the-art EverSafe™ III touch screen controller. New to Mystaire® is a full line of PCR workstations, including the MY-PCR Prep Station and CleanPrep™ dead air box.  
 
Mystaire® products are engineered and manufactured in the United States. Product range includes ductless fume hoods, PCR workstations, clean benches, balance enclosures, fume extractors, room air purifiers and more.
 
Copies of the Mystaire® 2014-2015 catalog can be requested here:
 
http://www.mystaire.com/contact/request-catalog.htm

What Can We Get from a suspect?

(http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2009/10/what-can-we-get-suspect) 


By Dick Warrington

This article originally appeared in Forensic Magazine® October 2009, Reprinted with Permission.


Every crime scene is different. Yet, our primary job as crime scene investigators is always the same: to tie a suspect to the scene. The way to accomplish this goal is to collect as much evidence as possible from the scene and the suspect.

No matter what type of crime scene you encounter, you must be thorough when processing it. In most cases, you’ll begin by looking for fingerprint, DNA, and impression evidence. Process everything that a suspect may have come into contact with. Don’t forget less obvious things like a piece of paper, a car steering wheel, a hat, or a cigarette butt. Make sure you check AFIS for a fingerprint match and CODIS for a DNA. When working with impression evidence, be sure to photograph everything before taking the impressions. That way, you’ll have a record of the evidence if your impressions get damaged during processing. Once you have a suspect, match his fingerprints, DNA, and impressions to what you found at the scene.

Read the rest of the article here

 

Above photo by: John- MTSOfan on Flickr.com


Mobile Forensics Central

A free website for anyone either in the profession of or interested in digital forensics. It contains a wealth of information and advice on software to use for the recovery of data from mobile devices depending on the type of information required to obtain from the device.

Click here for visiting the website. 





 
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