From Street Crime to a Result in One Easy Cabinet
Labcaire Systems have designed a novel, easy to use fume cabinet for the Metropolitan Police that rapidly allows local officers to analyse evidence obtained from street crimes.
The recent tragic event in South London has highlighted the current problem of crimes occurring on our streets. In London alone there are an estimated 130,000 burglaries, tens of thousands of street robberies and up to 55,000 cars stolen each year.
Consequently, the Forensic Fingerprint Cabinet (FFC) has been designed in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police to cut out the sometimes lengthy process of forwarding evidence to centralised fingerprinting services, and accelerate the times to obtaining a result from a simple analysis.
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Labcaire's Forensic Fingerprint Cabinet
The FFC is a safe and certified system that enables rapid and easy visualisation of fingerprints. It uses the proven Cyanoacrylate (CNA) or 'super-glue' method of solidifying fingerprints on the material under investigation. The operator simply places the evidence, with the superglue, inside the cabinet and starts the automatic cycle. Once the cycle is complete, officers photograph the prints for cross-referencing against the national fingerprint database. Matches can be assigned within minutes, rather than weeks or even months, which help the Police catch offenders quicker than ever before.
To successfully develop fingerprints using this method, the FFC accurately maintains a critical 80% humidity throughout the cycle. The cabinet also features an activated carbon filter, to handle any excess fumes, so it does not require any venting to the outside. This means the cabinet is easy to install on a bench in any local unit, and only requires mains electricity to operate. |
The superglue technique can be used on a variety of evidence from knives, handguns, plastic bags, plastics, drink cans, glasses, mobile phones, credit cards, tools and much more. It is particularly useful for identifying prints on more absorbent materials, such as leather handbags and wallets, where rapid fixing times are essential.
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Operation 'Boyle'
The Tower Hamlets Scientific Support Crime Unit has successfully trailed the FFC in preparation for Operation Boyle - a 'safer streets' initiative aimed at encouraging everyone to search thoroughly around the scene of a crime for any vital evidence for that could be sent for local analysis.
"The FFC has identified fingerprints from a number of items already, including a handbag in a street robbery, a knife from an assault, and radio casings from a number of 2 way radio systems used by prominent outfits involved in vehicle thefts across the UK," says Bob Milne, Higher Identification Officer for the Tower Hamlets SSCU. |
With the Home Office providing £34m of funds nationwide for a range of initiatives, the aim is to equip every police force in the UK with similar analysis capabilities.
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