Meet the SED team at these events;

American Acadamy of Forensic Sciences Event
February 21-26, 2011. AAFS, Chicago.

Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examinars Event
May 29-June 3, 2011. AFTE, Chicago

Email: info@sedllc.com

Location: 5410 Colchester Meadow Lane, Fairfax, VA 22030

Phone: 703-278-9322

Fax: 703-278-8331

One of the most appropriate uses of any new technology is to assist in the solution of violent crimes. Many of these personal crimes involve the use of a firearm wielded by repeat offenders who may or may not have any previous ties to the victims involved. In many cases the only connection between multiple shooting incidents involving the same firearm is found in the unique details in the marks left by a firearm in the surface of fired bullets and cartridge cases. These unique and repeatable marks have been used for nearly a century to link shooting incidents, even those with no apparent connection despite the best efforts of investigators.

Most shooting incidents today involve the use of semiautomatic pistols with the capacity for numerous cartridges contained in a magazine. As a result, most of the firearms-related physical evidence recovered from these crime scenes consists of fired cartridge cases ("brass") ejected from a firearm, along with fired bullets from victims' bodies or embedded in objects found at the scene.

Traditional Case Linkage

Traditionally firearms ("ballistics") examiners have physically compared these marks on fired bullets and cartridge cases from one crime scene against all previous fired bullets and cartridge cases of the same caliber found at other scenes in an effort to link the incidents. These traditional manual case linkage techniques employed the use of visible light microscopy to manually perform the comparisons, one pair of cartridge cases at a time. While this approach was theoretically sound, the rapidly accelerating number of evidence items accumulated over many decades has made it no longer feasible.

Conventional Computer-Based Case Linkage Systems

With the advent and maturing of computer technology, it became possible to acquire images of the microscopic details in the marks left in the surfaces of fired bullets and cartridge cases, to store these images and to devise pattern-matching algorithms for these marks. However, early on it became obvious that while such a tool was useful, it still had certain drawbacks. Primary among these was the fact that firearms examiners and laboratory technicians found that while these visible light systems did provide case linkages, they also produced far too many false positive results. This large number of false positives actually created a great deal of unnecessary work for forensic examiners and minimized their completion of other pending casework.

An Advanced Solution:

Based on multiple substantial NIJ grants, lengthy and very successful proof of concept testing was conducted, followed by testing the system against thousands of known standards. To remedy the problem of too many false positive results, SED used an alternative form of imaging based on the use of infrared technology used in tandem with an existing MIKOS Workstation, advanced pattern-matching algorithms designated FlashCorrelation®. Infrared imaging allows the capture of details not always observable using visible light. FlashCorrelation® employed with these more detailed infrared images produces significantly fewer false positive results.

A major benefit of the MIKOS Workstation is that the infrared images acquired by the system can be compared not only against other infrared images, but also against the numerous existing visible light images collected in conventional visible light case linkage systems. With this backward compatibility there is no need to start anew with infrared images only, and no visible light images would end up simply unsearchable and archived.

The MIKOS Workstation, and associated algorithms, can be adapted to use within a national network or as a standalone operation for laboratories preferring to link shooting incidents for their client investigative agencies only within that immediate region. Many forensic laboratories prefer the latter arrangement in that most of their case linkages occur within their own region.

Advantages for the Broader Law Enforcement Community

From the point of view of both firearms examiners and their supervisors, these are very positive outcomes, in that the examiners spend less time and gain better results, client investigative agencies are better served, and the number of cases completed by the laboratory is increased. Laboratory examiners, laboratory administrators, homicide detectives, and the general public all benefit from the solution of shooting incidents involving the same firearm and potentially the same repeat offenders.

The Immediate Future

SED is continuing to execute a current DOJ grant using the technology identified, to achieve three major goals; determine the persistency of detailed firing pin impressions only seen in infrared, determine if the technology can accurately image and match pristine and deformed bullets, is the technology as effective when using a large database of cartridge case images.

SED is planning on a full scale demonstration of the technology, based on the MIKOS Workstation and associated algorithms at the annual training seminar of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners to be held in Chicago from May 29th through June 3rd, 2011. Two papers will also be presented relating to the current grant progress. SED encourages all examiners to attend the presentations and view the supporting demonstration. Your feedback is very welcome.

The technology discussed today is supported in part by

Award No. 2009-DN-BX-K262 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed today are those of SED Technology LLC and its collaborators, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.