Forensic tips thread
Hey guys, in this thread we post some forensic tips from our personal or learned experience that could help people evade the law;
1:
Always buy fresh shoes for a job. Your old shoes and dumping them afterwards is not always sufficent, they can recover invisible footprints from the floor of your house
2: Gloves- not just in the crime scene, but when touching anything connected to the crime
3:Ashes, if you burn anything don't just leave it lying around- dump it in a river. Normal household bonfires are not as hot as you might think- they can leave key peices of evidence.
4:Hair: Always wear something over your head that will prevent hair coming out and being left at the crimescene.
Police Investigations
It is essential for the operative to understand how criminal investigations are conducted and just what can and cannot be determined from crime scene evidence. This knowledge will allow the operative to reduce the risk that law enforcement will be able to identify, build a case against, and successfully prosecute him or her.
Fingerprints
Fingerprints are possibly the most common type of physical evidence, and certainly one of the most valuable to investigators. Each person's fingerprints are unique to them and do not change significantly over time. Therefore, they offer the investigator the ability to identify the person who left them at the crime scene. There are three types of fingerprints which are collected as evidence;
- Direct or Inked Fingerprints which are collected from a suspect and use for comparison with crime-scene prints.
- Latent Fingerprints which are impressions caused by the perspiration through the sweat pores of the ridges of the skin being transferred to some surface.
- Residual Fingerprints which are produced when the ridges of the skin have been contaminated with substances such as oil, grease, dirt, blood etc.
Fingerprints deposited on hard, nonabsorbent, smooth surfaces, such as metal, glass, and finished wood, are the easiest investigators to find and record. Fingerprints deposited on porous, absorbent surfaces are the most difficult for investigators to find and process but the technology exists the obtain fingerprints off of nearly any surface, provided they are processed soon after being deposited.
Standards differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction regarding the number and quality of prints which must be obtained from the crime-scene and matched to a suspect in order for them to be submitted as evidence in court. Police, however, could possibly identify an operative from just one partial fingerprint. This evidence would be useless in court, but would make the operative vulnerable to further, aggressive investigation.
The only way to avoid this is to simply not leave any fingerprints behind. Wearing surgical gloves during every stage of a given mission is the simplest way to achieve this. Every item the operative brings along on a mission must have none of the operative's fingerprints on it. Special care must be taken to be sure that items, such as weapons, tools, and explosives, which have been handled before a mission, are free of incriminating fingerprints.
Body Fluids
Body fluids are of great importance to the investigator. Because of the unique character of each individual's DNA, the crime lab can rule a suspect out based on DNA samples or make statements such as " there is a 1 in 9,000,529,200 chance that someone other than the suspect deposited the sample found at the crime scene". This type of evidence is obviously very powerful.
DNA samples can be obtained from liquid or dried blood, saliva, urine and perspiration. Samples can also be obtained from human milk and semen but these are not the types of samples the operative is likely to leave behind.
How can the Night opper avoid leaving this type of evidence for investigators to find?
- Never urinate, eat, drink or smoke at or near the mission target. Saliva samples can be obtained from unfinished portions of food, beverage containers and cigarette butts. The operative may be forced to violate this guideline when lying in ambush or in a sniper's nest for extended periods. In this case the operative must use care not to leave samples behind for investigators to obtain.
- Never lick stamps or envelopes to be use to threaten enemies, to claim responsibility for acts of war or when making letter or package bomb attacks.
- The operative should do everything possible to avoid cuts and abrasions during the course of a mission. Chose routes of ingress and egress which are free of obstructions. Wear tough clothes, footwear and, of course, gloves.
- Whenever the operative is forced to come into physical contact with the enemy there is potential for body fluid samples to be deposited. The best way to prevent this is to become proficient in armed and unarmed combat so that enemies can be dealt with quickly and the risk of injury to the operative reduced.
There is also potential for the body fluids of the target of an attack or some contaminants from the crime scene to be deposited on the operative during the course of a mission. This potential is particularly strong in missions of Selective Assassination. When using weapons such as knives and firearms fired at close range, the operative is sure to become contaminated with samples of the target's blood. There is also potential for gunshot residue, trace elements from explosives, hair + fiber, and soil evidence to be deposited upon the operative's person and clothing.
The operative must begin each mission with a set of sterile cloths and destroy them afterwards. The clothing and footwear worn by the operative during a mission should be obtained from second-hand clothing stores or from services which provide used clothing to the poor. The clothing should be kept sealed in the bag from the store and not washed or worn before the mission. This is a simple and cheap way for the operative to be supplied with sterile clothing, which will be free of hair, fiber and trace elements evidence from the operative's vehicle, residence or person. These clothes can be removed and destroyed after the completion of the mission.
Trace Elements
This type of evidence is also frequently referred to as hair and fiber evidence. Trace evidence can be loosely defined as materials which are small enough to be overlooked upon initial inspection, and which, because of their size, are easily exchanged through contact. Examples of trace evidence include, hair, fiber, gunshot residue, threads, soil, debris, dust and chemicals, adhesives, polymers, paints, wood, insulation from safes and metals.
The detection of trace evidence linking a suspect to the crime scene, coupled with good evidence standards, makes for a powerful investigative tool. The operative must be aware of the potential links which law enforcement can make from trace evidence deposited at the crime scene or transferred from the crime scene to the operative's body, clothes, footwear, vehicle, residence etc.
1:
Always buy fresh shoes for a job. Your old shoes and dumping them afterwards is not always sufficent, they can recover invisible footprints from the floor of your house
2: Gloves- not just in the crime scene, but when touching anything connected to the crime
3:Ashes, if you burn anything don't just leave it lying around- dump it in a river. Normal household bonfires are not as hot as you might think- they can leave key peices of evidence.
4:Hair: Always wear something over your head that will prevent hair coming out and being left at the crimescene.
Police Investigations
It is essential for the operative to understand how criminal investigations are conducted and just what can and cannot be determined from crime scene evidence. This knowledge will allow the operative to reduce the risk that law enforcement will be able to identify, build a case against, and successfully prosecute him or her.
Fingerprints
Fingerprints are possibly the most common type of physical evidence, and certainly one of the most valuable to investigators. Each person's fingerprints are unique to them and do not change significantly over time. Therefore, they offer the investigator the ability to identify the person who left them at the crime scene. There are three types of fingerprints which are collected as evidence;
- Direct or Inked Fingerprints which are collected from a suspect and use for comparison with crime-scene prints.
- Latent Fingerprints which are impressions caused by the perspiration through the sweat pores of the ridges of the skin being transferred to some surface.
- Residual Fingerprints which are produced when the ridges of the skin have been contaminated with substances such as oil, grease, dirt, blood etc.
Fingerprints deposited on hard, nonabsorbent, smooth surfaces, such as metal, glass, and finished wood, are the easiest investigators to find and record. Fingerprints deposited on porous, absorbent surfaces are the most difficult for investigators to find and process but the technology exists the obtain fingerprints off of nearly any surface, provided they are processed soon after being deposited.
Standards differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction regarding the number and quality of prints which must be obtained from the crime-scene and matched to a suspect in order for them to be submitted as evidence in court. Police, however, could possibly identify an operative from just one partial fingerprint. This evidence would be useless in court, but would make the operative vulnerable to further, aggressive investigation.
The only way to avoid this is to simply not leave any fingerprints behind. Wearing surgical gloves during every stage of a given mission is the simplest way to achieve this. Every item the operative brings along on a mission must have none of the operative's fingerprints on it. Special care must be taken to be sure that items, such as weapons, tools, and explosives, which have been handled before a mission, are free of incriminating fingerprints.
Body Fluids
Body fluids are of great importance to the investigator. Because of the unique character of each individual's DNA, the crime lab can rule a suspect out based on DNA samples or make statements such as " there is a 1 in 9,000,529,200 chance that someone other than the suspect deposited the sample found at the crime scene". This type of evidence is obviously very powerful.
DNA samples can be obtained from liquid or dried blood, saliva, urine and perspiration. Samples can also be obtained from human milk and semen but these are not the types of samples the operative is likely to leave behind.
How can the Night opper avoid leaving this type of evidence for investigators to find?
- Never urinate, eat, drink or smoke at or near the mission target. Saliva samples can be obtained from unfinished portions of food, beverage containers and cigarette butts. The operative may be forced to violate this guideline when lying in ambush or in a sniper's nest for extended periods. In this case the operative must use care not to leave samples behind for investigators to obtain.
- Never lick stamps or envelopes to be use to threaten enemies, to claim responsibility for acts of war or when making letter or package bomb attacks.
- The operative should do everything possible to avoid cuts and abrasions during the course of a mission. Chose routes of ingress and egress which are free of obstructions. Wear tough clothes, footwear and, of course, gloves.
- Whenever the operative is forced to come into physical contact with the enemy there is potential for body fluid samples to be deposited. The best way to prevent this is to become proficient in armed and unarmed combat so that enemies can be dealt with quickly and the risk of injury to the operative reduced.
There is also potential for the body fluids of the target of an attack or some contaminants from the crime scene to be deposited on the operative during the course of a mission. This potential is particularly strong in missions of Selective Assassination. When using weapons such as knives and firearms fired at close range, the operative is sure to become contaminated with samples of the target's blood. There is also potential for gunshot residue, trace elements from explosives, hair + fiber, and soil evidence to be deposited upon the operative's person and clothing.
The operative must begin each mission with a set of sterile cloths and destroy them afterwards. The clothing and footwear worn by the operative during a mission should be obtained from second-hand clothing stores or from services which provide used clothing to the poor. The clothing should be kept sealed in the bag from the store and not washed or worn before the mission. This is a simple and cheap way for the operative to be supplied with sterile clothing, which will be free of hair, fiber and trace elements evidence from the operative's vehicle, residence or person. These clothes can be removed and destroyed after the completion of the mission.
Trace Elements
This type of evidence is also frequently referred to as hair and fiber evidence. Trace evidence can be loosely defined as materials which are small enough to be overlooked upon initial inspection, and which, because of their size, are easily exchanged through contact. Examples of trace evidence include, hair, fiber, gunshot residue, threads, soil, debris, dust and chemicals, adhesives, polymers, paints, wood, insulation from safes and metals.
The detection of trace evidence linking a suspect to the crime scene, coupled with good evidence standards, makes for a powerful investigative tool. The operative must be aware of the potential links which law enforcement can make from trace evidence deposited at the crime scene or transferred from the crime scene to the operative's body, clothes, footwear, vehicle, residence etc.