Training and Development Homework

Transcript Hair Interactive

Opening: Welcome, CSI trainees – thanks for coming to your inservice session on hair as evidence. We’ve got a short video for you to watch, as a review of what you need to think about when dealing with hair at a crime scene. Afterwards, you’ll go out with a couple of experienced officers to a crime scene to see what you can figure out. Let’s get started. All right. You’ve got your review; now it’s time to head out into the field. Detectives Gates and Morgan are going to take you out to a scene that was called in a little while ago. Travel: Tonight we’re heading to a local office building, where a young woman was sexually assaulted earlier this evening. The victim was working late in her office, when someone barged in and assaulted her. Luckily, another associate in the next group of offices had forgotten to grab her purse on her way out. She heard suspicious sounds through the wall, and she called the police – a patrol car happened to be nearby, and when the attacker heard the siren, he got out as quick as he could. There’s the building now. I think the victim is still on the scene; let’s see what we can find out.

Hotspots: Often in sexual assault cases, attackers aren’t as careful to conceal themselves as they should be. If you take a close look at this pillow, you can see that there are a number of hairs clinging to it. While some may be from the victim, it’s likely that some are from the assailant as well. One place it’s important to check for hairs of the attacker is, in fact, on the victim. Especially in sexual assault cases, there’s a good chance that some of the hairs of the attacker may be left on the head of the victim, if they were grabbed or had their hair pulled. Often suspects leave hair samples on the carpet of the crime scene. If you take a close look at this carpet, you can see that there are a number of hairs clinging to it. While some may be from the victim, or other coworkers, it’s likely that some are from the assailant as well. This baseball hat the attacker was wearing is a great place to check for hair evidence that might be used. Closing: Nice work today. Hope you learned some new techniques you can put to good use. Keep up your training, and you’ll be ready for anything. Good luck!

Video: Hairs can provide a great deal of information to a crime scene investigator. It’s first very important to collect hair evidence in the proper manner, so that clues and information are not lost. In addition, there are a number of considerations to think about when analyzing the hairs in the lab. An examination of human hair can occasionally reveal the possible race of the individual from whom it came and the part of the body from which it originated. Human hair can be compared to determine whether or not two samples could have had a common origin. The value of the laboratory examinations of such specimens will depend upon the amount of hair recovered and the characteristics found in the examinations.

When collecting hair evidence, there are a number of different techniques that can be used – it’s up to you to determine which is the most appropriate for the specific crime scene. You can collect individual hairs, or objects that have hairs on them. You can perform a “tape lift” technique on dead bodies. Combing or brushing can yield viable information. Another possibility is vacuuming the area that might contain evidence hairs. If possible, use the fingers or tweezers to pick up hair, place in paper bindles or coin envelopes which should then be folded and sealed in larger envelopes. Label the outer sealed envelope. You should recover all hair present at a crime scene for analysis. No matter what technique you use to gather hairs as evidence, you must take some precautions so that the evidence is not compromised. Never package wet hair, as the moisture can cause the hair to degrade more quickly than if it is packaged dry. Individual hairs should be packaged in individual containers. Also, be sure to mark all hair evidence with the appropriate information, which should include at least your name or initials, the case number, source, and date. If hair is attached, such as in dry blood, or caught in metal or a crack of glass, do not attempt to remove it but rather leave hair intact on the object. If the object is small, mark it, wrap it, and seal it in an envelope. If the object is large, wrap the area containing the hair in paper to prevent loss of hairs during shipment.