Off the ‘Cuff

the vancouver police museum blog

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Spring Break: Maggots Gone Wild!

March 15th, 2010 No Comments

One of our most popular workshops last week was our “Forensic Entomology” workshop, where kids got a chance to get up-close-and-personal with blowfly maggots. Before we let our plucky adolescent maggots out into the world, we pulled out the camera and let them be their uninhibited selves. (It’s amazing how uninhibiting Spring Break can be.)
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Proudly Announcing… Forensics for *Adults*

March 11th, 2010 3 Comments

Yo’veu asked for it, and we’ve (finally) delivered!
We are proud to announce our first forensics-themed workshop specifically for adults; our first topic will be forensic pathology, or the study of the causes of death. We will be offering two workshops each Tuesday evening, no matter which workshop you register for, you’ll be able to [...]

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Spring Break at the Police Museum

February 27th, 2010 No Comments

Spring Break is just around the corner and here at the Police Museum we are gearing up for another great session of intriguing forensic science workshops. This year we are offering all of last years  favourites  including fingerprints, blood spatter, entomology, ballistics and impression evidence.  All workshops are one hour long and encourage youth [...]

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No way, that’s impossible!

December 19th, 2009 4 Comments

When a writer is working on the script for the latest episode of CSI, Bones, Dexter or any of the other countless shows that depict forensic science, there comes a point when realism comes second to telling a good story. Although a real investigation and evidence analysis could take weeks or months, the show needs [...]

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VPM at Science World

November 27th, 2009 No Comments

The sun is shining today, but the weather forecast says it won’t last for long. Luckily for us, we will be hosting an event at Science World which will keep us busy and dry. This weekend (Saturday November 28th and Sunday November 29th) from 11:00am to 3:00pm we will be hosting a drop-in forensic science-themed investigation. [...]

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Following Up Our Spring Break Miracle

June 24th, 2009 3 Comments

1300 visitors in six days! It blows our mind, thinking about it; we managed to have almost an entire month of people come through the museum in just a week.
Spring Break was busy for us, in fact it was easily the busiest the museum has ever been; we ran forensics-themed workshops and our drop-in investigation [...]

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Problems for the Forensic “Sciences”?

March 5th, 2009 4 Comments

WASHINGTON — A congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council finds serious deficiencies in the nation’s forensic science system and calls for major reforms and new research. Rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists are currently lacking, the report says, as are strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence.And there [...]

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Hanging Out in the Blood Drying Room

March 4th, 2009 1 Comment

We have a particular interest in blood spatter at our museum, partially because we’re big fans of shows like Dexter, but also because of a space hidden deep in our building’s basement. Hidden away from the publicly accessible areas is a room once called the “Blood Drying Room”. This tile-lined (floor-to-ceiling) room was used to [...]

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Narratives Written in Blood

February 23rd, 2009 9 Comments

Signed in blood. Makes your blood boil. Captain Blood. Out for blood. Blood letting. Blood oath. Fight to first blood. Blue blood. Blood infection. In cold blood. Someone’s flesh and blood. The Blood of Eden. Blood is thicker than water. New blood. Blood and guts. Red blooded American. Blood transfusion. Bad blood. Blood on their [...]

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Birthday Parties in the old City Morgue

February 2nd, 2009 7 Comments

In the first three years I worked here, we had only a single birthday party a year here. In the past few months, though, we’ve had a dozen, with tons more planned for the next few months. How come?
The secret (don’t tell the competition) is that people buzz about us now in a way they [...]

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