Photo by John Biehler. Some Rights Reserved.

We’ve been so overwhelmed by the popularity of our “Forensics for Adults” workshops that we’ve added another series. On Wednesday nights in June, come to the museum to learn the basics of bloodstain pattern analysis, autopsies and firearms. We’ve also added a new workshop where we’ll be looking at broken glass, frayed rope, tool marks and more. Workshops (and dates) are as follows:

Blood Spatter
June 9 at 6:30PM or 8:00PM
This hour-long workshop will look at the messy (and precise) work of bloodstain pattern analysis. We’ll explore how the properties of blood and the physics of a situation can influence the spatter found at the crime scene by conducting our own experiments. Expect to get a little messy. If you’re prone to fainting, this isn’t the workshop for you.

Photo by John Biehler. Some Rights Reserved.

Forensic Pathology
June 16 at 6:30PM or 8:00PM
This hour-long workshop will explore, in detail, how autopsies are performed and how information can be gathered from a body to determine cause of death or solve a crime. We’ll get up-close-and-personal with some of the tools used for these kinds of investigations, all in the real facility that was once Vancouver’s city morgue (almost 15,000 autopsies were performed here between 1932-1980). Fainters probably shouldn’t take this one either.

Material Evidence
June 23 at 6:30PM or 8:00PM
This hour-long workshop will explore, in detail, the main kinds of material evidence found in crime scenes, from broken glass and fibre samples to tool marks. We’ll get up-close-and-personal with some of the tools used for these kinds of investigations, all in Vancouver’s former crime lab. Unless duct tape makes you faint, this workshop is fainter-approved.

Photo by John Biehler. Some Rights Reserved.

Ballistics
June 30 at 6:30PM or 8:00PM
This hour-long workshop will look at the kinds of evidence investigators use when a firearm may have been involved in a crime. Analysis of bullets (ballistic fingerprinting), bullet impacts, and trajectories as well as other firearm-related evidence will be discussed. (No, you won’t get to fire a gun but you’ll have so much fun it won’t matter.) This workshop is also fainter-friendly, we think.

Please note that tickets will not be available by phone or in-person; we will only be selling tickets online. Also, we’re not sure when/if we’ll be running these workshops again… this may be your last chance.

On Wednesday, June 2 from 6:00-9:00PM, you are all invited to the museum and try your hand at a handful of crime-investigating activities, from analyzing blood spatter and bullet evidence to identifying tool marks and foot prints. This event will be adults-only, as some of the material presented will be somewhat graphic.

The Police Museum, of course, is housed in a building that was once Vancouver’s City Morgue and Coroner’s Court; over 15,000 autopsies were performed in this space between 1932 and 1980 and countless pieces of evidence were analyzed downstairs in the City Analyst’s Lab. This place is as close as you can get to CSI:Vancouver.

Photo by Kim Werker

Stay tuned for additional announcements about this event; we’re working hard to line up some great surprises for you all!

If you plan on attending, please RSVP in the comments below or at http://vancouvertweetup.com/; we’d like to get a rough idea of the number of attendees so that we can plan accordingly.

See you soon!

(Also, we’ve posted the next series of our “Forensics for Adults” workshops. You can find info (and tickets) here.)

Click on each image below to get a sense of just how maggots celebrate spring break…

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 visit the museum for 30 minutes before and after your session.

• Forensic Pathology – April 13 at 6:30pm or at 8:00pm
• Blood Spatter – April 20 at 6:30pm or 8:00pm
• Ballistics – April 27 at 6:30pm or at 8:00pm

Seemed fitting to start with pathology, since the Vancouver Police Museum is housed in a building that was once the city morgue and autopsy facility (almost 15,000 autopsies were performed here). We also have an impressive collection of tools from that time, from head clamps to bone saws. This workshop will get up-close-and-personal with these tools, while discussing the process of an autopsy and associated investigation, from crime scene to funeral home.

(Additional workshops may be announced if these ones are successful…)

Also, please note that tickets will not be available by phone or in-person; we will only be selling tickets online. (Where you’ll also find more information about each session and its contents.)

Really, why should the kids have all the fun?

Alongside our workshops we are pleased to announce the launch of our Jr. Forensic Investigator’s club.  The club is open to youth age 7-14 who participate in our seasonal workshops.  Becoming a member is easy (see details here) and youth can receive some great museum-related benefits once they complete their workshops. We are excited to offer this opportunity to further engage youth in the fascinating world of forensic science. Those who become members during the break will have the opportunity to attend a ‘members only’ event on Friday March 12th.

If you aren’t able to attend a workshop then come by between 9:30am and 4:00pm March 8-12 to try your hand at one of our Drop-In Crime Scene Investigations. For more details about Spring Break activities  make sure to visit our website.

One of those most commonly used examples of “Showbiz Forensics” is the amazing power that “software” has to “enhance” an “image”. This video, that we found on YouTube this morning, helps show just how common this trick is:

(Thanks to http://dunk3d.tumblr.com/ for this!)

In real life, of course, forensic techniques like this don’t exist, or don’t work nearly the way they’re shown. Instead, most investigation involves really hard work, a strong intuition and a significant amount of deductive reasoning. And even when you have access to magical technology, sometimes the low-tech solution, combined with lots of hard work, beats the high-tech one. (But that makes bad TV.) You could spend hours trying to lift and identify a minuscule portion of a fingerprint on a drinking glass, or you could start by seeing who had a reservation for that table that night and interviewing eye-witnesses.

Next time you watch a forensics-themed TV show, be sure to pay attention to all the fantastic examples of “showbiz forensics”. Usually, it’s painfully funny. What’s your favourite example of impossible forensics?

ps. We’re doing a bunch of workshops for kids on the forensic sciences this Winter Break; if you’re an adult and want us to do forensics workshops for you, be sure to let us know.

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 and were completely overwhelmed with visitors. Without buying a single piece of advertising or sending out a solitary press release, we were so busy that we came very close to being over-capacity in our building.

How do we follow up that success? Do it again, with a little better planning this time. (Now that we know how popular these activities can be…)

On select days through the summer, we will be hosting a new series of workshops for kids seriously interested in forensic science. Each workshop will go hands-on with a different topic, including fingerprints, impression evidence (foot and tire prints), forensic entomology (bugs) and ballistics. A workshop for older students on blood spatter will also be offered. After the workshop, students are welcome to explore the museum and put their new skills to the test with our Forensics Drop-in activities at no additional charge. ($10/student, $5/member; spaces are limited and reservations are required.)

Our topics include:

• Fingerprints – Every time we touch something we leave unique marks. Come learn about the types of fingerprints, how we find and collect them and how we analyse them. Suitable for ages 7-12.
• Impression Evidence – Footprints, tire treads, bite marks and tool marks. Come find out how we use all different kinds of impressions to catch bad guys. Suitable for ages 7-12.
• Forensic Entomology – Sometimes, creepy crawlies provide the best evidence to solve a crime. You’ll learn all about bugs and how they make great witnesses. Suitable for ages 7-12.
• Ballistics – This workshop will explore how we analyze guns and bullets as evidence. . Suitable for ages 7-12.
• Blood Spatter – What story do these shapes and patterns tell us? Not for the feint of heart, this workshop will explore the basics of blood spatter analysis. Suitable for ages 10-15.

Workshops run for one hour. There are only 25 spaces in each workshop, so book soon! (The schedule of workshops is available here.)

Hopefully we can recreate a little bit of our Spring Break Miracle.

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 is a dearth of peer-reviewed, published studies establishing the scientific bases and reliability of many forensic methods. Moreover, many forensic science labs are underfunded, understaffed, and have no effective oversight. – From a press release from the US National Research Council, published Feb 18, 2009 [Link]

This is the ominous start to a long press release summarizing the recent findings of the National Research Council into the state of Forensic Science in the United States. As you can imagine, it’s not generous in it’s praise as it finds serious defects in both the practice and theory of forensics. Does this translate to Canada? Some of it undoubtedly does, as there is much cross-pollination between the two countries in terms of training and expertise-sharing. Still, Canada has national standards and joint training that are unmatched in the United States.

Keep in mind, though, that the role of the courts isn’t to find somebody guilty beyond all doubt; “reasonable doubt” is the standard that actually exists, recognizing that real evidence, it’s collectors and its analysis is always imperfect. High standards are important and there’s always going to be room for improvement but this article seems a little rough on a set of disciplines that have evolved out of the needs of practitioners, not from the science lab or pure theory.

A rough analogy would be farming; is it fair to criticise a farmer for not keeping detailed notes and undertaking double-blind multi-dimentional studies involving combinations of fertilizer, seed stocks and harvesting methods? Of course not, all that matters is that “it works”. As far as it goes, fingerprints are pretty darned good at identifying individuals uniquely–not perfect, but “they work”.

At the Police Museum, we’re not experts in the philosophical, theoretical or legal aspects of the forensic sciences, and don’t try to be. We have, however, developed a great appreciation for all those who work tirelessly to identify, collect and analyze evidence in real crime scenes, often in difficult or dangerous circumstances. In an age where some juries are starting to expect evidence to prove beyond all doubt that someone is guilty (with fancy 3D animations and charasmatic witnesses), it’s not an easy job at the best of times.

Keep up the good work, and we’ll keep teaching the public about what you do and how its done. (Without giving away all the secrets, of course.)

Occasionally, investigators will go back to their older evidence for DNA testing–a technology that didn’t exist at the time. It can be tricky, though, because evidence-handling procedures and attitudes have changed significantly over time; some of that evidence could have touched other evidence and had genetic material transferred to it. The Vancouver Police Department now has highly advanced drying lockers and handling procedures that both greatly reduce the possibility of cross-contamination.

Perhaps someday we’ll have the chance to open up the Blood Drying Room for the occasional public visit. In the meantime, it remains–for visitors aware of its existence–a delicious and unsettling mystery two floors below you.