Forensic Intelligence

Robert Milne

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781439860380
• eBook ISBN: 9781466575905
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Forensic Science
• Index: Law

When forensic recoveries are properly processed and recorded, they are a major intelligence source for crime investigators and analysts. The majority of publications about forensic science cover best practices and basic advice about evidence recovery and storage. Forensic Intelligence takes the subject of forensics one step further and describes how to use the evidence recovered at crime scenes for extended analysis and the dissemination of new forensic intelligence.

The book draws on the author's 40 years of experience as a crime scene examiner, latent print examiner, and the Head of Forensic Intelligence, New Scotland Yard, in the London Metropolitan Police Intelligence Bureau (MIB). It supplies practical advice on how to use all forensic recoveries in a modern, analysis-driven, intelligence-led policing environment. The text covers evidentiary procedures related to each of the main crime types, as well as the production of intelligence products from police data.

Accompanying the book are downloadable resources with a plethora of additional resources, including Treadmark Express footwear evidence software; exemplar templates for the input of forensics, behaviours, and method data into intelligence systems; and other material.

This reliable resource is designed for police services of all sizes and capabilities—from the largest organizations with thousands of employees and big budgets down to the smallest department with a few officers. By mastering the basic crime recording and intelligence processes in this volume, investigators can make the best use of all their forensic recoveries.

CD ROM Contents:

Treadmark Express Footwear Evidence Software and User's Manual
Operation Bigfoot Footwear Pattern Distribution Graphs (London 2005)
Example CSI Forensic Intelligence Template
Shoe and tool Marks Coding Document
Report on the Vision of Forensic Intelligence and Strategic Thinking
A Unified Format Spreadsheet for Merging Drug Legacy Data from Different Forensic Science Laboratories
Forensic Intelligence Report (FIR) Template
Role Description Example–Forensic Intelligence Manager
Footwear Intelligence Process Map
Ballistics Intelligence Process Map–Inputs & Outputs

Introducing Forensic Intelligence

1

Introduction

Intelligence, in the context of the investigation of criminal activity, should give those who practise it improved results and fresh leads into new areas of investigation. When planning a business model, even in crime intelligence, it pays to look at the basic definitions in relation to the field because only then can the question be asked, ‘Does my model actually deliver intelligence to deal with forensic findings and results, or is it a performance analysis and review model tasking staff to deal with that which is already known and often already being implemented?’

In fact, most of the textbooks useful to problem-solving crime analysts or intelligence-led problem-oriented policing do not so much as mention the word ‘forensic’ in the text or indices. This happens to be a serious omission, for forensics can deliver many of the truths required to accurately unearth offenders’ identities and link crimes to serial offenders. Other analysis outside casework, which is surveillance or informant led, is based merely on opinion or probability and can have a higher percentage of false links, misses, or errors, leading inevitably to investigative failures.

Semantics: ‘Forensics’ and ‘Intelligence’

In dissecting the term ‘forensic intelligence’, the word ‘forensic’ means two things in classical and modern times:

• To bring evidence before the forum or a court of law in classical times
• Scientific evidence in the form of comparisons and scientific findings applied to the law in modern times^1,2

The word ‘intelligence’ in the online 2011 Oxford Dictionary is a person or being with the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. From my own experience, I believe it to be an ability to produce solutions or resolve problems in new and novel situations.

The terms ‘forensic’ and ‘intelligence’, when combined in practice and applied to criminal intelligence, give more strength and ability to the intelligence-led effort on problem-oriented policing.

Forensic intelligence provides information necessary to provide solutions and bring the issues before those who spearhead, task, and coordinate the effort against crime and disorder.

Forensic Intelligence: Professor Olivier Ribaux’s Definition

Professor Olivier Ribaux³ defines forensic intelligence in the following way:

By definition forensic science already plays an intermediate role between the specialized field of science and law enforcement. Forensic intelligence is the accurate, timely and useful product of logically processing forensic case data. Of importance is the implication of an additional level of consideration, where collectively (across numerous investigations or various disciplines), the outcomes of forensic analyses become the source of intelligence.

In order to highlight the concept of forensic intelligence, a working definition is required. The following definition was derived from practical working experience and is based on already established and commonly used techniques. The point of the definition is that the concept of forensic intelligence is mainly about what is done with forensic evidence to make progress in casework in relation to other information and intelligence. Most texts on the topics of forensics and crime analysis thus far have not covered these aspects in any detail. There is a need for basic definitions and terminology in order to make progress on the issues raised. To support the definition, a general statement of the methods employed in forensic intelligence is given next and the methods listed are general generic techniques used in forensic science and crime.

Forensic Intelligence: A Working Definition

The application of forensic science to crime intelligence, in order to determine the facts at issue, to enable the production of intelligence products for action in the areas of the linking of crimes and the matching of offenders to crimes.

Forensic intelligence methods include

The matching of fingerprints, DNA profiling, chemical, biological analysis, matching of physical marks, the coding and categorisation of forensic data into databases, digital image analysis, telephone communication, computer network data and the mapping of forensic recoveries, enabling forensic data to reveal patterns of criminal activity and the production of intelligence products for action.⁴

To those involved in criminal investigation, there is nothing unusual about the methods used to enable a forensic intelligence capability; however, in most police services, forensics is generally used on a case-by-case basis. Forensics is often viewed by crime intelligence analysts as the domain of the crime scene investigators. This compartmentalisation of thinking can and has led to disastrous failures in major investigations.

The Concept of ‘Entities’ in Police Recording Systems

The main purposes of crime intelligence and crime analysis are to detect offenders and/or disrupt their activities, thus moving toward the ultimate goal of crime reduction. In this context, the offender must be viewed as an ‘entity’ that has a living space, journey to crime, methods, behaviours, description, and unique biometric features and that, through actions, generates intelligence information from sources and leaves forensic evidence whilst engaged in criminal activity. Indeed, all people, real locations, forensic exhibits, latent marks, DNA profiles, etc. are real entities.

The concept of entities applies to all real things, for each real item can be the focus of a record. For example, a burglary is reported at 2 West Street; a crime report record is created for the address, but inside the report are many fields covering details of the investigation, the alleged victim(s), suspects, etc. To find details in the fields across many crime reports and information in other systems, users have to seek the information relevant to the ‘entities’ they seek by proxy. In other words, the entity itself is not the focus of the search or enquiry. If the address at West Street was the focus, then all records in relevant systems (not just the crime report system) would respond with the address as the location entity with all records relating to that entity.

At this time, police systems are based on records rather than on entities. To achieve an entity-based approach, most police systems have to be data warehoused, usually by extracting copies of all records in different systems daily into data warehouse servers, enabling entity-based searching to be carried out in the data warehouse servers. Such an example is the Metropolitan Police Service Integrated Information Platform (IIP), which enables entity searches across crime reports, crime intelligence, and custody and stops databases. Without such an approach, most searches are made by proxy or are looking for entities within records-based systems. Entities are found in subsets of data, usually in headed fields where they may be recorded. The consequence of using records-based systems at this time is that analysts’ time is consumed in the creation of spreadsheets from different systems and then having to compare or merge the spreadsheets to seek common factors relating to the entity or real item, which is the real focus of the research.

It is therefore wise to view the process of intelligence and crime analysis holistically across all the available disciplines ranging from recorded facts, intelligence information, and recovered forensic evidence.

The primary objectives of this book are to raise awareness of forensics as intelligence sources for those involved in investigations, crime analysis, and forensic examinations. When considering forensics, service providers involved in forensic examinations, crime intelligence, and analysis should consider these key issues by asking the following questions:

Do crime analysts within our organisation have any meaningful awareness or training in the significance of forensic recoveries?

How many fingerprint identifications and DNA matches against crime scene forensic recoveries did our service achieve in the past year? Has this number increased or decreased from the prior year?

With respect to the fingerprint and DNA (hard evidence) recoveries, did the matches result in arrests and prosecutions? Are there useful hard evidence forensic hits that are not making their way to analysis or being turned into detections? Also, what is the trend relative to follow-up analysis performed on the bulk of these fingerprint or DNA identifications and matches?

What is our service’s track record in expanding fingerprint and DNA hits by the use of intelligence and crime analysis research?

What additional achievements has our organisation made using other, ‘softer’ forms of forensics such as shoe marks or tool marks apart from fingerprints and DNA? What results can be achieved from using the softer forms of evidence?

As 80% to 90% of forensic materials recovered never make their way into a forensic laboratory, what are the ways that we can utilise this material to solve cases? Is my organisation keeping track of forensic matches against offenders, particularly prolific offenders?

How can forensic intelligence enhance the nine standard crime analysis techniques listed in Chapter 3 to be used to drive police intelligence-led models?

What are the implications of not investing in a proper digital evidence imaging, measuring, and comparison system (e.g., Treadmark or Shoeprint Image Capture and Retrieval [SICAR]) as a knowledge and system asset to deal with footwear and tool mark evidence?

Has our service negatively experienced what is defined as the ‘CSI effect’ derived from the television series, which has increased the expectations of juries and courts in the capabilities of forensic examinations and services?

If the answers to these questions are mainly ‘no’ or ‘I do not know’, then your service is missing big tricks in improving its results and is not using a major set of tools to enable real intelligence links and forensic matching techniques to improve your business. If you have answered ‘yes’, then the following chapters will be your go-to reference for continuing success in forensic intelligence management. Regardless of your current position, it is important to read this book carefully as it will help to clarify some of the preceding issues as well as offer solutions to day-to-day problems in forensic intelligence.

If the volume crime work stream seems daunting and your organisation is having difficulty in recovering or dealing with forensics effectively, then major problems can arise in major investigations. In these conditions, there will not be any forensic context in which to relate recoveries, even for petty crime. Further development of forensic recoveries can quickly lead to the identifications of single offenders, crime series offenders, and gangs as well as create leads necessary to address dated and unsolved cases. It should be pointed out that the main impression of the CSI television series is that everything is somewhere in a database and that general categorisations of criminal types are invariably true, but this is unrealistic. What is realistic, however, is for a properly structured forensic service to manage and handle the real forensic recoveries they retain effectively to make best use of them, within their finite resources.

Does Your Forensic Services Staff Have Access or Input to Your Intelligence Systems?

In police services, forensic staff may not have direct access to the crime intelligence systems because, in my experience, organisations are often slow to change working practices. Intelligence is associated with attitudes toward confidentiality for reasons associated with sensitive casework and is usually administered by individuals associated with that top-end casework. Those attitudes and resistance to change can lead to a situation where stakeholders involved in routine volume crime are either denied access to intelligence systems or very restricted in what they are allowed to do. Consequently, in some organisations little or no input is received from CSIs in this area owing to lack of training and access rights—even to have input-only rights.

Until 2001, for example, the Metropolitan Police as an organisation had not realised that CSIs and fingerprint specialists could make use of both intelligence gathering and input to intelligence systems with mainly the ‘restricted’ but not normally the ‘confidential’ areas of the system. The term ‘restricted’ means that the contents must not be discussed or disseminated outside the police organisation unless specific permission is given. Most crime reports for volume crime cases are restricted, as would be intelligence logs at the volume crime level with the exception of confidential informants or features of the case that cause the records to be graded ‘confidential’.

Obviously, intelligence systems have securi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Forensic Intelligence CD ROM Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• The Author
• 1 Introducing Forensic Intelligence
• 2 The Value of Forensics in Crime Analysis and Intelligence
• 3 Research and Analytical Processes
• 4 Forensic Evidence Recovery, Processing, and Best Practice
• 5 Best Practice in Recovery of Forensic Evidence from Crime Scenes
• 6 The Implementation of Intelligence-­Led Policing
• 7 Forensic Intelligence Applied to Different Crime Types
• 8 The Need for Investment in Information Technology
• References
• Index