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US Police Using High Power Lasers to Solve Crimes
Capt Jackie Dunn heads the Criminal Investigation Divisions and believes the camera will allow KPD continuous access to a crime scene for years. In cold case investigations, the original detectives...
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Guest Police Articles by Shane Ennerson
US Police Using High Power Lasers and Laser Systems to Solve Crimes
Killeen Police Department investigators hope a new high-tech tool purchased with the help of criminals will capture more criminals. The new high powered tool in question is high power lasers and laser systems.
The police will ask the Killeen City Council at Tuesday's meeting for approval to purchase a Leica Geosystems 3-D crime scene laser scanner using the department's state seizure fund.
The state seizure fund is money recovered from drug busts and other crimes that gets returned to KPD. Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin will ask KPD to use $150,000 taken from that fund to change the way KPD processes crime scenes.
Leica Geosystems, a Swiss company specializing in laser technologies, developed the ScanStation, which has been used by law enforcement throughout the United States, according to the company's Web site. The 3-D crime scene tool has been featured in the A&E show "Crime 360."
The scanner uses laser technology to do what KPD currently does with tape measures and hand-drawn sketches. The scanner sends laser beams through a crime scene and then produces a digital map.
Capt. Jackie Dunn heads the Criminal Investigation Divisions and believes the camera will allow KPD continuous access to a crime scene years later. In cold case investigations, the original detectives sometimes retire from or leave the department, which means the person who experienced the actual crime scene and its details leaves the department with that information.
This technology would allow a new detective to travel through the crime scene using a computer and search for new tips or clues that may arise years later.
"It will give us a better tool for better processing of crime scenes," Dunn said. "Even after we relinquish the crime scene and turn it over, it will do a procedure, where by the drawings it does and by the 3-D capability, a detective can go back, revisit the crime, walk himself through the crime scene and see if they have missed anything."
The tool also creates more vivid pictures of crime scenes, which Dunn believes will make a stronger case for prosecutors to present to juries, who are increasingly expecting to see technology-based evidence in the courtroom.
The camera, which sits on a tripod, can be used for indoor and outdoor crime scenes. The scanners re-create a room in 3-D in approximately 25 minutes.
The device would also be another step forward in Baldwin's efforts to develop the department as it prepares to move into a new state-of-the-art headquarters in 2009.
"It will put us well into the future in technology," Dunn said."
Police Nab Laser-pointing Youth
A young Auckland man is facing up to 14 years in prison for allegedly shining a high-powered laser pointer at the police helicopter Eagle - which promptly hunted him down.
Police say the helicopter is being targeted by lasers almost weekly and want the government to follow Australia's lead in banning possession of the high-powered lasers and introducing a specific charge for laser-pointing.
"Because I don't want to crash, and that's exactly what's going to happen," says pilot and senior constable Shane Gayley. "Helicopters don't glide. There's only one way down and you're screaming all the way."
Gayley says when laser beams hit the cockpit they are "as wide as his arm is long", and initially blind the pilot, then cause burning irritation in the eyes for hours afterwards.
Eagle is particularly susceptible because it flies low, and pilots fly manually rather than relying on instruments.
On August 23, Eagle tracked one alleged laser-pointer, Ricky Laurence Nikora, through Auckland's eastern suburbs, leading to his arrest in a Burger King in Mission Bay.
The 25-year-old labourer from Otahuhu was charged with interfering with a transport facility with reckless disregard - which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years - and has entered no plea. He is due to appear again in Auckland District Court on October 24, for a pre-depositions hearing.
Gayley says other offenders will be before the courts soon on similar serious charges.
Wellington police were also investigating a similar incident last week in which someone repeatedly aimed a laser beam into the cockpits of planes at Wellington International Airport.
The Australian law change was triggered this year by a spate of attacks on at least six passenger jets coming into Sydney airport, where about four lasers simultaneously "painted" cockpits, delaying landings and forcing flight path changes. An air ambulance and police helicopter were also targeted.
Strong lasers - such as the green one allegedly used by Nikora - can be 35 times stronger than red laser pens and shine for 5km.
Here there are only voluntary restrictions on the sale of these lasers but the government announced in June that it would consider a more stringent ban. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs said it would take its lead on a law-change from the Civil Aviation Authority and police.
The Saturday night hunt that ended in Nikora's arrest started when Eagle was passing a house in Orakei on a routine patrol, and the pilot and two police officers on board saw the green beam.
Mt Wellington senior sergeant Danny Meade says the crew watched "three guys, one of whom had his hands up actually pointing the pen ... He didn't just do it once, he did it four times - making sure we knew where he was".
The helicopter hovered over the house and when three men got into a car a little later, Eagle followed, radioing police on the ground with the men's details. Eagle followed the car to the neighbouring suburb of Mission Bay, where police say the men parked near Burger King and headed inside, where they were arrested.
The charge of interfering with a transport facility with reckless disregard was drawn up to cover acts such as blowing up bridges, tearing up railway tracks and stealing stop signs, Meade says.
"Blinding the pilot of a helicopter would quite easily fit into that."
One other person has been convicted after attacking Eagle with a laser - Gayley says he "got off quite lightly" and was convicted only of criminal nuisance, which carries a one-year sentence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Freelance writer working for Dragonlasers - No 1 for Laser Modules, Portable Lasers & Laser Safety Glasses
www.mounted-police.00books.com
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