Oct 9, 2008 8:50 pm US/Pacific
Criminals Set To Face New Weapon Of Crime Fighting
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
It's not just a fingerprint left behind or DNA. Criminals are about to face the next generation of crime-fighting weapons in the arsenal of CSI Sacramento.
Finding those pieces and putting them together is getting easier and faster. It's the future of forensics, and in some cases the future is now.
Inside CSI's crime lab fingerprints pop up under the laser light on pieces of paper and a gun. But, this is old technology that is about to get an upgrade.
"It's an exciting time to be in forensics," says Carla Murray.
Soon, they'll see more than just a fingerprint. Future forensics will identify tiny particles in the ridges of paint, like explosive material, gunpowder, or fibers. And it's already possible to pull microscopic DNA along with a print.
And down the road, a criminal who wipes down a gun to get rid of prints will leave something else behind for good; tiny scratches of salt from skin, a permanent print etched as evidence.
"The etching is actually recording the identifying characteristics in a fingerprint into that metal," explains Carla.
And the Sacramento's Police Department's fingerprint ID's are coming faster than ever; a print to a name an hour.
"And we're hoping to get it done in one episode of CSI Las Vegas. We want to beat their record of a 48 minute show," says Carla.
A national database of 60 million prints finds possible suspects. A match is made by an analyst. And through extensive cross-training at the department, there are more analysts than ever.
"And just in the five months of training we've already hit over 200 individuals," Carla explains.
In the five months before, there were just 12 matches. And now, the department could be days away from sending back prints wirelessly from a crime scene to the lab for a match made in minutes, making it possible to catch a criminal faster than you could watch an episode of CSI.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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