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ZHPolice trialling new forensic footwear identification
Most CCTV cameras can make the footwear look completely different than it does in natural light.
Image © Rafa Jodar | iStockphoto.com
Forensic experts at the UK’s Staffordshire University and West Yorkshire Police have teamed up to develop a new system which uses three-dimensional (3D) scanning technology to help identify the type of footwear worn by criminals caught on CCTV. While the analysis of footwear tread impressions left at crime scenes has been an established practice for many years, this new approach focuses on the upper part of the shoe in order to link individuals to an offence.
“Most CCTV cameras use near-infrared light during nighttime recordings, which can make the footwear look completely different than in natural light,” commented professor of forensic and environmental science, Claire Gwinnett. “So, it was important to develop a method that will help police to quickly identify the type of shoe, how common it is and, importantly, what it looks like under different lighting conditions.”
In the method currently being trialled, a video is recorded of a shoe on a turntable under visible and infrared light, the frames are extracted and then stitched together by software to make a 3D model.
Selina Reidy, an identification expert from West Yorkshire Police, said: “We are receiving a growing number of requests to identify the make and model of footwear caught on camera. Having access to a searchable database of interactive, 3D models of footwear under both white and near infrared light will greatly improve the accuracy and efficiency of the current process.”
The optimum settings for the process are currently being refined before it is piloted by different UK police forces in the new year. It is hoped that in future this method could be adopted to populate a national database of footwear uppers which could be accessed by police professionals across the country.
Publishing Data
This article was originally published on page 2 of the December 2023 issue of SATRA Bulletin.
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