The L-Tron team has returned from a successful visit to the Texas Division of the International Association for Identification’s (IAI) Conference. The event took place from June 7-8, 2023 at the Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake. L-Tron’s John Dobies and Julianne Pangal attended the Texas IAI conference alongside dozens of law enforcement officers, crime scene investigators, and detectives from around the country.
The L-Tron team has returned from another successful trip to the 106th Annual International IAI Conference in Omaha, NE from August 1-4th. L-Tron team members, Andrew McNeill and Julianne Pangal, attended the event. OSCR360 was a focal point at the L-Tron booth. See more about the IAI conference here..
The L-Tron team will be attending the 2022 IAI Educational Conference in Omaha, Nebraska from August 1-4, 2022. This year’s conference will be held at the CHI Health Convention Center, and will feature lectures, workshops, and networking opportunities for forensic evidence examiners and crime scene investigators. The latest research, techniques, and technology will be shared throughout the duration of the conference.
Captain Kraft of the Ward County Sheriff’s Office has found OSCR360 to be an invaluable resource. As a supervisor, Kraft isn’t always able to make it out to crime scenes in person. Anytime there is a suspicious death or other scene that needs quick overall images, his investigators photograph the scene using OSCR360 and present the case to Captain Kraft back at the office. They have also integrated their close-up photos from criminal cases into the OSCR360 software.
When you are processing a crime scene, it’s important to document how the scene was originally found. While overall photographs, crime scene video and spherical photography can all accomplish this, there are pros and cons to each. At the end of the day, you as an investigator or crime scene technician must have an all-encompassing visual depiction of the scene, and you must be able to speak to where pieces of evidence were discovered.
What’s in your crime scene kit? Here are a few suggestions from a retired crime scene investigator to ensure you are always prepared…
You’re an investigator tasked to decide what DSLR camera(s) your agency should buy. You’re NOT a photographer, but know how to investigate. You CAN pick the right gear with the right questions:
Photography is the primary tool for crime scene documentation. Proper crime scene photography is a deliberate and systematic process. Its main purpose is to visually convey all aspects of the scene to someone who wasn’t there. To accomplish this, all crime scene photography consists of three basic types of photographs: overall, mid-range, and close-up.
There’s a certain “Zen” in what ways a crime scene is documented. Thinking behind documentation – “finding mindful awareness of the present” – is as important as methods used. An investigator can have all the current tech available to document a crime, but if they aren’t “in the moment,” their case can fall apart.
The first step to analyzing a crime scene – observation – begins well before CSI gets there. Cops train in it. Not as daring as tactical entry, or dramatic as saving a life, but in solving crime, it’s a game-changer every time.