We put them on planes and they help us to reconstruct what happened when things go terribly wrong. So it makes sense that black boxes would start appearing in automobiles; it fits thematically with the trend toward digitally memorializing all testimonial information in order to assure accurate reconstruction of disputed events.
Tell that to the New […]

I’ve been waiting to see signs of this and, after seeing airline security alert levels raised today, the stories are starting to emerge. Here’s a story about a technology that uses video cameras to scan luggage for suspicious items by monitoring the electromagnetic energy given off by different objects. So explosives can be theoretically be […]

It was bound to happen. With most police cars now equipped with laptop computers and real time online data access, it’s not surprising to see new technologies emerging to aid law enforcement in keeping an eye on, well, all of us. I’ve done ride-alongs with the Issaquah Police Department and I was surprised at how […]

I was asked recently to write an article on Fingerprints and while doing research I came across the story of Victor Reyes, a Florida man who was put on trial for murder based on a fingerprint found at the scene and ultimately linked to him. What caught my eye was the fact that the latent […]

An interesting new case out of Pennsylvania portends some real conflict ahead. When a Pennsylvania man was tried for murder, prosecutors created a Computer-Generated Animation (CGA) movie depicting their version of the murder. The short film was generated with software commonly used by animators and was based on actual forensic evidence offered at the trial. […]

The machine pictured above (often referred to as “an instrument” by police in lab coats) is used by police to test the amount of alcohol present in a drunk driving suspect’s blood. How do you test blood alcohol taking a breath sample? Well, this machine attempts to do this by taking a sample of a […]

A family friend is Commander of Operations for the Issaquah Police Department and he has graciously allowed me to attend some of his department’s nightly police briefings and go on ride-alongs with some of his officers. It’s always a fascinating experience, and I never know what to expect when I go. On a recent night […]