Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2 - Fingerprinting

What I'm reading: Free Fire, by C.J. Box; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (book club)

Continuing with workshop recaps from the Pikes Peak Writers Conference.

There were two workshops on forensics, both given by retired forensics expert, Tom Adair. (And, he's going to be my guest on May 8th). Both were "hands on" which made a great change from sitting and taking notes.

The first was about fingerprinting. (And although the workshop was hands on, he did begin with some facts.)

Fingerprints are unique and permanent (with very few exceptions, such as burns. They're established in the second trimester, pre-birth. In addition to fingerprints, all dermal ridge prints are unique to the individual (feet, toes, palms, etc.)

Contrary to what we might believe from television, prints are NOT everywhere. And, not finding someone's prints on an object doesn't mean the person didn't touch it. Finger marks are more common, but they're not usable for identification. Probably fewer than 10% of fingerprints found at a crime scene are identifiable to someone. It's not likely you'll get prints from bullet casings.

Left Coast Crime - Forensics

After a very interesting weekend at Left Coast Crime, I'll try once again to provide highlights and recaps of the conference. My panel, Sex & Romance in Mysteries was one of the first sessions, and I was pleased that we had a good turnout. We talked about a lot of the topics I've already discussed here in various posts, so I'll move on to another panel. If anyone has questions about the Sex panel, leave them in the comments, and I'll be sure to answer.

One of the panels I made a point of attending was "A Dose of Reality: Forensics"

Panelists

Zulema Seligsohn, who translated "Poisons in Mysery Literature" by Alfonso Velasco Martin, which focused on usage in the Golden Age of Mystery.

Dr. Doug Lyle, author and forensics expert.

Priscilla Royal: author of mysteries set in the 13th century.

Thus, we have quite a span of time covered in the panel, which was fascinating. (And because Dr, Lyle was there, laugh-out-loud funny)

Writers' Police Academy, Part 5

What I'm reading: Crossfire, by Dick Francis and Felix Francis


Promo note – WHEN DANGER CALLS is now available at the Kindle Store. It's $2.99. Of course, if you want an autographed hard copy (great for gifts) you can still get them either through the regular Amazon store or via my website.


Back to the Writers' Police Academy

Dr. Jonathan Hayes was the featured afternoon speaker (again, right before dinner) and he elaborated on his earlier talk. This time, he focused on points which we authors can use to get things right in our books.

(Note: you might not want to be reading this over breakfast)

Civilian Police Academy - More on Class 5

What I'm reading: Alibi Man, by Tami Hoag

What I'm writing: Chapter 30

After fingerprints, we had a tour of the Crime Scene Lab. First -- the techs wear uniform polo shirts, black BDU pants and boots. No Armani, no heels, no low-cut shirts. There are 2 squads, 6 people each, plus 2 supervisors and 2 assistant supervisors. They work 4 10 hour days but are basically on call 24/7 and expected to be at any scene in the county in under an hour. The perk here is that they get to have official vehicles (no Hummers -- just mini-vans which are being phased out because they're too small) to take home.

We saw the imaging lab -- everything has to be documented photographically, so they're plenty busy. Then a tour of the lab where they look at things like blood spatter, the various chemicals they use to raise prints, make impressions of tool marks, determine the angles of shootings and other fun stuff. However, unlike the television show, almost everything has to go to the FDLE labs for analysis. There are no magic machines where you put in a drop of blood and get a "match" on someone's DNA in minutes. If it's not a high-profile violent crime, and they don't have a suspect's DNA for comparison, it can take 3 years for results. Best case scenario is more like several months.

The next lab showed how they collect evidence such as tire tracks or shoe prints. This is also the room where they super glue objects to raise prints, since this will "set" the print and reduce chances of it being unusable as evidence. Prints are identified 'in house' but again, most everything else goes out to the FDLE labs.

Oh -- and you know how the CSI folks are always doing Gunshot Residue tests? Nope. Although the test exists, it's barely reliable, and can't tell you if someone shot the gun. It's also expensive, the results take 3 months to come back, and the courts won't touch the results if it's been more than a few hours since the gun was fired and you have to be able to verify the suspect hasn't had a chance to change clothes or wash hands. However, the deputies CAN tell suspects that they're going to do the test, and if the suspects have been watching CSI, they might just confess because they think it's an immediate proof of their guilt.

The DO use those yellow evidence markers, though!

I'm sure I'll think of more little bits and pieces -- when I do, I'll post them.