Forensic Equipment

Documenting the scene of a crime is of vital importance to the investigation. In order to do this criminalists use a diverse assortment of equipment to record every last detail before anything is disturbed. Verbal notes are often spoken into a dictaphone to be transcribed later and cameras are used to snap overviews and detailed close-ups of injuries and individual pieces of evidence.

Forensic evidence falls roughly into two categories – physical and biological. Physical evidence generally relates to prints, firearms or other items; biological evidence is the presence of blood, hair or other body fluids and organic material. Often tents will be erected outdoors to prevent evidence being destroyed by the elements.

Alternative light sources like ultra violet and infra red are often used to pick out trace evidence like fibres which may not be immediately obvious to the naked eye. Print examiners expose finger prints with dusting powders or take copies of individual samples with special ‘lifting’ tape.

Casting kits are also used to make impressions of tire tracks, footprints, and tool-marks, and minute forensic evidence is gathered by the CSIs with tweezers and cotton swabs.