As forensic science works / Spain Criminology
never come face to face with the offender, usually do not even know who he is. Theirs are the tiny samples, traces almost invisible, their task is to bring them to light and helping to resolve cases without leaving the bench ... "bills of exchange, checks and receipts, here comes a blanket." While talking, José Manuel Benavides, Technical Document Examination Section of the Central Forensic Science Service, is showing a large collection of all types of forged or manipulated. "For example, here is a check that is says is reviewed.'ve Scraped the paper, have eliminated the original amount ... because of course, here's what it is to benefit the firm."
forger's work did not help much: the apparatus of Section took the changes in light, rather, to different types of light filters through which passed the check, and that got rid of the original ink by magic, leaving only visible alterations. Once issued
the opinion of forgery and sent to court, the case ended, at least for the men of Document Examination. After all, only one of many cases of forgery with which they face. In addition to bank checks, receipts and bills of exchange, also get passports, identity documents, wills, driver licenses, lottery tickets, handwritten or typewritten letters, casino chips or football tickets.
The counterfeit paper money, which have been subject in many movies, not as common as you might think: "There are several types, from classical organized gang, it does well, even photocopies of hand-colored bills." Forensic Document
has large units, but has not always been so. This section, like all others that make up the Central Forensic Science Service (formerly Central Office Identification) has been a great change in recent years, a dramatic expansion of media shows has gained importance over the years the scientific techniques applied to the police investigation. "Police have not changed but the way they do, it works according to certain laws, as these laws are setting new demands, the police must meet these requirements. Currently, we are going a demonstration of the fact much more reliable. That requires any demonstration might not get a policeman saying what he thinks or giving his opinion of what he has seen, what he has seen what has to prove, and must do so technically. With an expert's report, with analysis, something that can serve as objective evidence in court. "
But in those particular cases apply these analytical techniques? Practically, almost all crimes may include the involvement of this service , but only act injunction, providing the results of its analysis. Usually they are not usually informed about the details of the case are working: they may find that signing a check is false, that a bullet had been fired by some gun in particular that several bags of coca have been cut with strychnine, but not who falsified the shooter, who committed adultery. What's more, do not want to know, because knowledge of details may make them lose objectivity in their work. "The next news we have when we quoted trial to testify about the survey. The expert arrives at the trial, answer the questions asked and, when finished his statement was going ... and we do not know what's happening in the trial to end. "
This pursuit of objectivity in the work of the Police Science is shared by its counterpart in the Civil Guard, the Judicial Police Service. Its facilities are perhaps less colorful and workload more rested, but primarily engaged in the same, with identical procedures and performance standards.
The basis on which these departments work could be defined as any type of action or human intervention on an object or another person leaves traces. And these traces can be found and identified. Document Examination Section of the Scientific Police (the equivalent in Civil Guard is the department of graphic) is a good example. A fraud can happen by legitimate sight to the man in the street, but years of experience and equipment as videoespectro comparison, get wonders: a simple scrape, barely visible to the naked eye, stands out as its own light. And if anyone has tried to remove a strikeout, also presents a greater problem: to go by subjecting it to different types of light, the erasure disappears beneath the text can be read clearly.
The comparison microscope is perhaps the most common weapon used by these officers in white coats, is used in almost all sections and allows to observe two different objects simultaneously. Forensic Document as used, for example, to compare an actual document with another dubious. Lofoscopia to find similarity between two fingerprints. But perhaps the Ballistics section that makes greater use of that device ... and many others. In this department do what we all see out in the movies, just what is real and much more thorough analysis. Shells, pods and weapons are the material of work, and when they are analyzed section as fully as possible. The pods and shells were examined under a profile projector or a comparison microscope for signs that may be less than a tenth of a millimeter, but that will demonstrate conclusively, for example that two pods have been fired with the same gun. All information obtained is archived for future reference, so that it is possible to reconstruct the criminal history of a gun newcomer consulting files. Sometimes the weapon's serial number is defaced, or the gun's firing pin or needle is not the original. These manipulations are a major difficulty, but never impossible to solve. Makes it very clear maximum exposed on the wall: "The forensic laboratories do not exist for rapid action, but to respond fully reliable." (Or, one might add, as reliable as possible ...)
For that, both the Police and Civil Guard, issued a diagnosis so, they need a certain total.En Sometimes the work is simple, for example, if you come to the ballistics section of the police photographs of the autopsy for a robber shot dead in the heart. The pictures, not very pleasant to contemplate, show the wound caused by the bullet inside the body, and inlet holes and outlet that was left in the clothing of the corpse. With this, and the analysis of holes and shells, the men of the section are sufficient to describe the circumstances in which the shooting occurred as clearly as if they were there. Even more clearly, in those cases where witness statements contradict each other.
Occasionally his testimony has been inconclusive. A little over a year, a woman was shot dead in Madrid while walking down the street Arturo Soria. The proximity of a Marine barracks there, went to research. "By examining the bullet, we determined that a cartridge was 7.62 and had been shot with a Cetmar. Now What Cetmar was twenty thousand, thirty thousand, one hundred thousand, which are manufactured? Impossible to know. As there suspicion that the area of \u200b\u200bperformance could be the Marine Barracks in the vicinity, are legally required to have weapons that day might be available at the dealer. Were, 34 Cetmar that passed through the lab, and found them perfectly what was ". The rest of the investigation was carried out by other departments, but, faced with irrefutable evidence, the manager was quick to confess.
Daily
fires a weapon in the departments of Ballistics, projectiles need to make comparisons, and to get them have a shooting gallery and special collectors. They even have holders for firing a ranged weapon, if there appears no be in good condition, thus preventing it from breaking the technician in the face.
These findings can also be used if the judicial authorities of the day you want to know if this gun or that gun can fire accidentally or if they work smoothly. If you have to find the deformation of a projectile embedded in a body, turn to substitutes: for example, the Civil Guard fired at pig heads to compare the status of other bullet has been found in a human skull.
Fingerprints can leave a projectile inside a body are now the responsibility of the Forensic Analytical Laboratories. Despite the name, no dead bodies lying on the tables, but you work with a tiny sample, not just bodies but any substance that is necessary to identify whether it is a poison, explosive or drug.
"We are working at the level of 120-130 monthly issues, both biological and explosives, drugs or classical liquid in front of a deceased murder or suicide, and you have to say what is or what has not. There are techniques basic must know all know that the University ... but if you go poking in anatomic absorption, you go poking in electron microscopy, then you need the expert that, based on years and years, is taking this technique. What you have in this area is a great imagination. " Good but still few results they have achieved progress very applied genetics to the police investigation may give a lot to say to these analytical departments.
Although the DNA is of paramount importance in the biological field, for police Lofoscopia section, a fingerprint, or a fragment thereof, may be sufficient to identify its owner without any risk of doubt. Each track has a series of characteristic points or accidents, and the minimum number admitted as evidence by a court depends on the laws of each country. In Spain there are twelve other countries reach 17, others were just four. There are areas where the prints are better exposed than others, but when not seen, there are a number of products to make them stand out.
Police has 750,000 chips with the fingerprints of people who, at some point in their life have had to "play the piano", as it was before the printing of the ten digits in police stations. Each tab is listed alphabetically in a file, and the characteristics of the impressions, in another. But these gigantic files are intended to give way to modern computer terminals, "Berta", a database that preserves 750,000 cards, about seven and a half million marks in the computer that the Directorate General of Police is in Escorial.
Located in an authentic
bunker, the Berta being computerized every day a thousand cards of the police file to get a fingerprint identification that can be solved in seconds from anywhere in Spain.
The Civil Guard has not been left behind: his computer, "the Duque de Ahumada", located in the Directorate General of Madrid, operated from a building built specifically to house two massive ordenadores.El "Duque de Ahumada" and " Berta "are interconnected and can assist in criminal cases of special importance.
The scientific work of the police officers can be found in the future, and improved facilities seems to indicate, new departments, such as Trace Instrumental to identify tools, Toxicology and Voice Identification, will become even more effective the work of laboratory beagles. His work is not in the street, or often even know the face of the person whose diagnosis has just declared guilty. Since its quiet tables full of high-tech instruments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they simply tell what they see and how they have seen.
Author: Vicente Bobadilla
