Students
Chapter 2: Camera
CASE STUDY
You are a newly hired police chief in a small western Pennsylvania town with a limited budget but a need to solve burglaries in your area. The primary crimes in your town are burglary and drug-related crime associated with robberies and assaults. Your town averages 1.4 murders a year, and violent crime is relatively low. The majority of crimes occur between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am, are committed by males, and are usually the “crash and grab” method of a quick, forceful entry, followed by a burglary taking less than 30 seconds to complete.
Question 1: As a new chief, what should you be looking for in terms of purchasing equipment that may help you solve the burglaries?
See five terms on page 26 (Chapter 2). The camera should be DSLR, capable of being adjusted manually, used with a wide variety of lenses, rugged but lightweight, and be able to adapt to all phases of photography.
Chapter 3: Optics and Accessory Equipment
CASE STUDY
You are newly hired at a mid-sized university in the United States. You were hired because you recently completed your doctoral degree in criminology and, at the age of 52, you have 20 years of experience as a police officer, detective, and sex crimes investigator. Besides introductory courses in policing, you were given the graduate course in Police Photography for the degree certificate program in forensics for your department. Your first lecture is about the process of photography and the equipment involved.
Question 1: Using the information above, how would you make a discussion of photography lenses interesting to students? Explain
While answers may vary, students should discuss techniques other than just lecture. These could include visual aids, a demonstration, the use of pictures, or even guest lecturers in the field who have experience equivalent to yours so that a debate or question-and-answer session could begin.
Question 2: The information presented in the text on the use of filters is somewhat complex; however, your class is targeted for the average graduate student. What is one way you could demonstrate the use of filters in your lectures?
While answers may vary, students may discuss hands-on learning or other examples. Another suggestion could be a mock crime scene in which photos must be taken. Using your expert knowledge in the field, lighting, blood, and other pertinent information could play a crucial role in the production of useful photos.
Chapter 4: Light Theory and Digital Imaging
CASE STUDY
There has been much debate over the quality of film images compared to digital images. Generally speaking, film images are usually considered superior to digital images. You are a newly hired police photographer for the forensic unit in a mid-sized western town. Answer the following questions.
Question 1: How would you make an argument for digital photography over film photography for your department?
Because of the vast array of film types, digital images may be superior in many instances, including pocket film versus digital images, sharpness of film selected, and even long-term cost of film over digital imaging. When selecting a camera, department size, budget, and experience may all be important aspects to consider.
Question 2: Several factors can affect image resolution. Your chief wants you to explain how camera resolution affects the resolution of a digital image.
There are four factors that can affect resolution: (1) number of pixels, (2) optics and focus, (3) ISO settings, and (4) duration of exposure. While several factors contribute to resolution, these four are outlined as the most important in the text.
Question 3: Your department has decided to use RAW file formats for digital data. What would be your argument for or against this method?
One would most likely argue against using RAW format. This is because RAW format lacks standardization across camera manufacturers, and these file types are not typically supported by additional viewing software. This would lead to limited use for the police department.
Chapter 5: Photographic Exposure
CASE STUDY
As a prosecutor, you are upset at the new crime scene technician who took the photos of a murder scene in a high-profile murder of a business owner in a well-known dining district. The photos that were taken were blurry and at times unrecognizable. For future reference, answer the following questions.
Question 1: How could exposure issues have contributed to the problems with the photos?
Exposure is the amount of light allowed to reach the film, and there could have been some clear mishandling of the film on the technician's part. Accurately measuring light with a light meter dictates how to set the aperture and shutter to get both the best detail the film can register and the desired aesthetic effect.
Question 2: How could an exposure meter have helped the technician?
Adding a hand-held light meter to back up the photography and accurately calculate exposure with different lenses would be beneficial. It is important to remember that it is impossible to make a good print from a badly exposed image but making a good print from a good image is a simple process.
Question 3: What additional suggestions could aid the technician in future cases?
One suggestion could involve the different uses of manual and automatic cameras. In addition, the use of a tripod or different lenses may aid the technician.
Chapter 6: Flash Photography
CASE STUDY
You are a game warden in West Virginia and you are trying to locate poachers who are sneaking onto federally protected land and taking animals, mostly at night. You are responsible for not only catching the poachers, but also processing the crime scenes in which several white-tailed deer and newly re-zoned elk and black bear have been taken. Most of the deer and elk are taken for their mounts, and the meat is left behind; as for the bears, they have been skinned, leaving most of the meat behind as well.
Question 1: Processing a crime scene at night can be troubling; how would you go about selecting the right method for flash photography?
While single-flash photography would be productive for close-up shots, the use of artificial light, most likely the use of slave units or flash meters, may enhance the photos and give a wider view of the crime scene. Single-flash photography can be limited at night. To allow for a wider range of processed photo with nearly equal light, the processes discussed above would aid in better picture development.
Question 2: While it would be nearly impossible to "paint" an area with light and happen to have the poachers take an animal in that area, what would be a benefit of using this procedure?
Painting by light illuminates much of the background that a single flash would leave unrecognizable. This process can do an excellent job at lighting difficult shots and dark backgrounds.
Chapter 7: Crime Scene Photography
CASE STUDY
You are an experienced crime scene photographer who is training a brand new college graduate to become your partner and potential replacement when you retire next year. As the lead crime scene photographer for nearly 25 years, you have witnessed just about every crime there is to witness. Using this information, answer the following questions.
Question 1: What will be some of the hardest things for the rookie to adjust to in crime scene photography?
Brutal scenes involving homicides and suicides and potentially crimes involving children due to the gruesomeness of the scene will most likely be the most difficult. Photographic evidence must be taken of gunshot wounds, suicides, sexual penetration, and so forth, and for an unexperienced rookie with book knowledge and very little practice experience, these areas may be the most difficult.
Question 2: You arrive on a homicide scene of a 22-year-old male who has been shot to death. The murder weapon lies at his feet, blood is pooling around him, and a set of footprints lead to the back door of a house located at 24 North 9th Street. What is the first photo you take?
Step 1 in "How to Photograph a Homicide Scene" indicates that an overhead shot of the body is the first shot you take.
Question 3: You arrive at the scene of a man, dead, hanging from a belt in his closet, completely naked. There is no sign of forced entry, no other weapons, and the house appears undisturbed. There is a bottle of beer on the bed side table; no lights are on with the exception of the television, which is currently showing a blue screen as if a DVD or VHS has ended. What is the cause of death?
While many would say suicide, the death could be autoerotic, especially if it is found that the DVD playing was pornographic in nature. This evidence can also be associated with the fact that the victim was naked and had been drinking.
Chapter 8: Motor Vehicle Incident Scene Photography
CASE STUDY
An accident occurs on a busy intersection just outside of Evansville, Indiana, on a snowy February night. There are three cars involved. Car one, which appears to have crossed the median, is a Jeep Compass (white) and has side-swiped a black Ford Focus (with two passengers) and then proceeded to bounce from that vehicle and hit a Ford pickup truck (with one passenger). The driver of the pickup truck was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. All others involved were not seriously injured. The driver of the Jeep Compass had no visual marks of injury and appeared simply shaken, while the passengers in the Ford Focus were complaining of headaches.
Question 1: What is the first thing you should do at the scene as the photographer?
Answers may vary about what is done first, but the entire scene of the accident should be photographed, with all the vehicles in the position of collision and, later, with the vehicles removed. An overall view should be taken along with four different angles, one each from the north, south, east, and west.
Question 2: What should be photographed?
All vehicles, victims, victims thrown from the vehicles, debris, skid marks, license plates, marks in the road or soil, close ups of the roadway, photographs of the vicinity, and the interiors of the vehicles should be photographed.
Question 3: If blood was found on the soles of the shoes of the driver in the Jeep Compass and the floor board by his feet but no apparent injuries were noted, what could be assumed?
It could be assumed that either (1) the driver walked to the crime scene and came across the injured man who was ejected from the vehicle and then returned to his vehicle out of fear, or (2) the driver was part of an earlier crime, possibly a murder, and the blood was from an additional scene. See warnings about assumptions with motor vehicle scenes being staged in the text.
Chapter 9: Evidence Photography
CASE STUDY
You arrive at a crime scene on a snowy night in December just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Two victims lay dead: one, a 26-year-old female named Nicole List, and the other, a 24-year-old male named Cliff Moser. Moser, a part-time bartender at a local dive bar, and List, a social worker, were sexually involved for the past six years while she attended undergraduate and graduate school. The bodies lie dead in the back yard of List's condo, with one pair of footprints exiting the house leading to where List lies dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head and two to the pelvic region and where Moser lies dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. One set of footprints leads from Moser's car to where his body is discovered with the gun lying next to him.
Question 1: What should be photographed?
The vehicle, weapon, bodies, footprints, shell casings, the area surrounding the house, the house number/address, and blood patterns should all be photographed. The house may be examined but does not require photographing if the violence never entered the house, which appears to be the case with this double homicide. However, inspection of the house may lead to clues as to why the crime occurred.
Question 2: What evidence is in danger of being compromised by detectives or the weather?
The footprints in the snow, blood spatter and patterns may deteriorate in the snow, and the weather may hamper collection of body fluids or other physical evidence. The text gives information on collection of physical evidence that may be difficult to collect or could become damaged due to weather, contamination, etc.
Chapter 11: Identification and Surveillance Photography
CASE STUDY
A father of three is found murdered in the bathroom at his home in the small town of Jasper, Indiana. The suspects are his wife and his three kids, as no sign of forced entry was detected.
Question 1: What are some of the difficulties the photographer may face in investigating this crime?
Answers may vary.
Question 2: What should be photographed?
The victims, all surfaces before and after they are dusted, the mirror, any murder weapon. Additional answers may vary
Because the suspects are his family, their fingerprints would be expected to be in the bathroom. This would be a difficult case to investigate unless blood evidence or other traceable physical evidence was detected.