Every Tool, Every Case, Every Time
There’s an amazing CSI and cold case investigator in the Atlanta, GA area named Sheryl McCollum. As luck would have it, she also happens to be a good friend. Course, with her being a southern belle with an awesome sense of humor, she’s friends with pretty much everyone! But I’ll take it wherever I can.
Beyond being borderline famous as a key member of the Emmy award winning show CSI Atlanta, being a close confidant and criminal investigator for Nancy Grace, a frequent guest on shows like Dateline and 20/20, and the President of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, Sheryl is also an outstanding crime scene investigator and consummate professional who deeply cares about the victims of crimes.
And she has a mantra that I want to expound on: Every Tool, Every Case, Every Time.
What do you think she means by that?
Let’s start with a few ways solving crime has changed in the last few years.
· Information Technology (IT). Smartphones have changed all our lives. You may be reading this on your smartphone right now. Literally the world’s information is at your fingertips. Elon Musk says we have almost become cyborgs we are so integrated with our electronic devices. Want a panic attack? Forget your phone when you leave the house! Very few of us are ever without it. And police can use that to catch the bad guys. Smartphones don’t just allow us to communicate in every way possible, they also track us through apps and even the cell towers. In some cases, suspects have turned their phones off while they committed the crimes and that caused the juries to give more weight to related evidence. In today’s society, who turns their phone off?? We haven’t even touched computers and other electronic devices but you get the picture.
· Ballistics. Did you know there is an entire database on weapons? Not just the type of weapon, but the unique signature it leaves on the shell casing when a round is chambered and fired. The national database is called NIBIN. So yeah, if you fire a weapon in an illegal way, law enforcement has tried and true methods to identify the weapon, the shell casings, the bullet (if recovered), and an entire database they can compare the shell casings to, so don’t do it!
· Fingerprinting. Fingerprinting has been around since 3300 BC, so by now we’ve gotten pretty good at it! Even ancient civilizations recognized the unique patterns on the ends of every person’s fingers, so why not use those as a form of identification and authentication? The first known use of fingerprints in a criminal investigation was in China in the early 12th century. Since then we’ve gotten a bit better, including national databases around the world, and being able to identify even microscopic variances in the signatures of different people. Of course the criminals have gotten craftier as well, dreaming up all sorts of ways to defeat fingerprinting. But new brushes, methods, powders, identification lighting and sprays are being developed on a regular basis so frankly, criminals would be better off finding a more honest profession.
· DNA. The gold standard of evidence is now forensic DNA. Why? Because if the quantity and quality of the collected DNA is high enough, it can be so differentiating the odds of it not being a particular person can be many times more than the population of the history of the earth. As in 1 in trillions or even higher. That’s fairly conclusive! And DNA uses are rapidly expanding. What started as simple blood typing has evolved into STR testing, which is what the current CODIS national database uses. Scientists are able to identify specific locations on the DNA strand called Short Tandem Repeats (STR) that are unique to every individual, and if even 10–12 cells are collected at a crime scene or from evidence the DNA profile can be compared to a reference sample taken directly from the individual and an extremely strong match can be made.
Entire books have been written about DNA and its uses in criminal investigations, so we won’t elaborate too much on them here, but suffice it to say forensic DNA is the Holy Grail for investigations. When a solid DNA profile is developed from evidence, absolute elation is usually the response from investigators and prosecutors because it is so such a powerful cog in the investigative wheel. Suspects had better have a VERY good reason why their DNA is on a victim’s shirt of any other piece of evidence. Could it be there by arbitrary transfer? Possibly, and investigators must fully vet that, especially when a typical individual sloughs off more than 400,000 cells per day. So yes, we are depositing our DNA all over the place every day! But more often than not DNA is directly deposited by the suspect being near or in contact with that evidence.
Although there are numerous enhancements to DNA processing and interpretations, I want to focus on the front end of the process — collection. Any major advancements in DNA collection? I am so glad you asked! And fortunately for many investigations, the answer is yes — The M-Vac system.
But wait! When we have DNA processing so sensitive all we need is 10–12 cells, and interpretive software on the backend that can help separate multiple donors, what’s the big deal about collection? Can it really make that much of a difference? Yes. It can and it does. It’s the garbage in, garbage out concept. If you don’t collect it at the beginning of the process, everything behind it is garbage. Not even the most skilled scientist can create something out of nothing!
What we are finding, over and over, when a case does not have a good DNA profile from previous testing, is there is oftentimes DNA on the evidence, but the collection method used just couldn’t get to it, or didn’t collect enough to generate a usable profile. Anyone with a basic understanding of physics can immediately see why. When you use a method like swabbing, oftentimes the swab material cannot physically fit into the cracks and crevices of a surface to access the DNA material that is there. It’s like a broom trying to get to dirt that is deep down in a patch of carpet. No matter how hard you push or go over it, the broom bristles just won’t get down there. Same with swabbing evidence.
But the M-Vac works like a carpet cleaner. It sprays a sterile liquid onto the surface and applies vacuum pressure at the same time, creating a mini-hurricane for the cells on and in that surface.
When the FBI compared the M-Vac to swabbing in a robust comparison study, they found the M-Vac collected up to 66X more in some scenarios, and overall 12X more. When you put that in context of how much forensic DNA is required to generate a viable DNA profile, that’s absolutely huge and often times makes the difference between a usable profile for investigative purposes and a negative.
Clearly we can go on for days about individual technologies, methods, tools and techniques that can help investigators find and explore evidence and leads in a case. If anyone out there wants to jump on this newsletter with me and elaborate you are more than welcome. This goes out to thousands of law enforcement investigators who all need to know better ways to solve crimes!
But for now let’s revisit Sheryl’s mantra — Every Tool, Every Case, Every Time. Can every individual investigator know and be an expert in every method, tool and technique? No. That’s why it’s so important for agencies to not only invest in the tools themselves, but also the training it takes to learn these new techniques. Justice for the many victims out there depends on it.
If we just look at how many US law enforcement agencies have the M-Vac system, we estimate it at about 4% of those that should have it versus those that do. Granted, many of those agencies have used neighboring or cooperating agencies or a private crime lab to process evidence, but what about all the times when they needed the M-Vac at the scene? Or the evidence needed processed immediately? Did the investigator just swab it the best they could, knowing it may not get it but didn’t have any choice? Frankly, I think when that happens, we, as a society, do an incredible injustice for victims, our communities and the investigators. As a whole, we spend an amazing amount of resources in areas that are far less important than solving crime, so shortchanging our criminal investigations and justice for victims is just wrong.
How do we maximize ‘Every Tool, Every Case, Every Time’? First, make sure the investigators have the tools, or at least have access to them. Next, make sure we empower investigators to get the training and knowledge of the latest and greatest tools. Taking time off to sharpen the axe may seem counterintuitive to some, but being more effective always makes up for lost time.
And lastly, make sure our investigators know they CAN and are expected to follow that mantra. Some agencies are so understaffed and underfunded they literally go from one crime scene to the next, simply bagging and tagging evidence, taking a few pictures and off to the next one. They just do not have time to process a crime scene properly. The investigators are exhausted, frustrated and feel unappreciated by city officials and the community because they can’t solve as many cases as they otherwise could if they had the resources they need.
On the other side, a few years ago I had a DNA analyst at a major crime lab tell me he didn’t need the M-Vac cause he had been swabbing for decades and was satisfied with how things have always been. I was amazed at that statement for numerous reasons. When improvements exist and you have access to them who doesn’t take advantage of them? How many people are still running around with a flip phone? Not many. And the reason why is obvious. So too is using the best investigative tools available.
Every Tool, Every Case, Every Time!