9th Annual Women in Law Enforcement Conference

May 2nd, 2016

In the quest to discuss creative strategies in combating crime, ITC’s 9th Annual Leadership Development for Women in Law Enforcement conference (25 – 27 May 2016) will bring law enforcement entities together with the aim of strengthening collaboration and partnerships at all levels of enforcement, bringing together various enforcement directives in the quest to empower, inspire and awaken the spirit to leadership.

Both local and international speakers will boost exceptional individuals that have through their hard work and determination, put fellow women law enforcers on the global map and have proven that it is possible to lead, despite gender challenges.

The annual ITC conference also includes an awards ceremony on day two and is a platform where women law enforcers are recognised for their contribution to enforcement.

Some confirmed speakers include:

  • Major General Liziwe Ntshinga

Provincial Head: Directorate For Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Free State
SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE

  • Annalene Marais

Deputy Chief of Police: Operations
CAPE TOWN METROPOLITAN  POLICE DEPARTMENT

  • Ursula Mc’Crystal

Head : Anti Money Laundering Surveillance
STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA

  • Captain Elmarie Myburgh

Investigative Psychology Section: CR & CSM
SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE

  • Lieutenant  Colonel Heila Niemand

Provincial Unit Commander Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offence (FCS)
SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

  • Agent Valerie Parlave

Executive Assistant Director
FEDERAL BEREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON

KEY STRATEGIES TO BE DISCUSSED:

  • Creating a culture of quality service delivery in law enforcement
  • Using various leadership traits as a woman in law enforcement
  • Looking at the role of law enforcement in addressing the protection of women and children
  • Advancing your management capacitation through stronger mentorship
  • Excelling as a woman law enforcer by utilising Emotional Intelligence to your benefit
  • Pursuing a career based on your passion to make a difference
  • Encouraging continuous education for women within law enforcement
  • Strengthening the fight against Cyber Crimes
  • Addressing physical and psychological challenges faced by women in policing
  • Women in law enforcement complementing instead of competing
  • Equipping yourself and your team with the right tools to execute your directive

To learn more about the conference please visit: http://www.intelligencetransferc.co.za/conferences/9th-annual-leadership-for-women-in-law-enforcement/

Thanks from Kuils River CPF

Apr 21st, 2016

We recently received a wonderful thank you email from the Kuils River CPF following a DNA and crime scene awareness workshop we presented for them on the 12th of March 2016 that we wish to share…

Good day Ms Moodley

I must share this with you.

The neighborhood watch members whom attended the DNA course. Had an opportunity to attend a crime scene before the police or any armed response companies and could secure and preserve the crime properly and done an excellent hand over of the scene to SAPS.

Thank you for the workshop the neighborhood watch members are now talking highly of the course and are encouraging other members to attend the next course.

Well done to DNA Project.

Kind Regards
Wesley Prinsloo

Well done to the Kuils River CPF members on successfully securing their crime scene for the SAPS!

Kuils River CPF workshop presented by DNAP trainer Renate on 12 March 2016

How dead pigs can help nail killers

Feb 29th, 2016

A pig’s carcass lies in a cage at a secret ­location on the Cape Flats. Weather-monitoring equipment is attached to the cage. (Devin Finaughty)

It is surprisingly difficult to find a place in Cape Town to leave a 60kg pig to rot. It cannot be close to water, in a residential area or anywhere near agricultural land – there are certain biohazard requirements.

It also has to be secure, so that none of the accompanying R46 000-worth of weather-monitoring equipment is stolen.

“This has been the most difficult part of my project,” says Devin Finaughty, a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Finaughty is investigating how human bodies decompose in the Cape, and a pig’s body is the closest to an actual human body when the latter can’t be used. He is quick to point out that his project has undergone rigorous ethical clearance.

We are sitting at the Rhodes Memorial Tea Garden, and overhead the mercurial Cape weather cannot decide whether it wants to rain.

Behind us, an eavesdropping elderly couple is torn between curiosity and disgust as we talk about dead bodies washing up on beaches, the life cycle of maggots and the bloating of corpses in a vlei.

Belinda Speed, another UCT PhD candidate investigating human decomposition, stirs her tea and pulls her cardigan closer around her.

“When we get bodies [in forensic pathology laboratories] that are decomposing, the main questions are: Who is it and how long have they been dead?” she says.

This is what Speed and Finaughty have set out to investigate: Finaughty on land and Speed in the turbulent Cape seas.

Environmental factors

Bodies decompose differently, depending on the environment that they are in, and this information is necessary to determine a time of death and, if foul play is suspected, to find the person responsible.

“The decomposition process is extremely varied and there are various factors that influence how a body decomposes,” says Dr Jolandie Myburgh, a senior technical assistant and lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Forensic Anthropology Research Centre.

These factors include the humidity of the region, and the types of insects and animal scavengers in the area, among others.

From our vantage point at the Rhodes Memorial, we have a panoramic view from the Cape Flats through to the Helderberg and Hottentots-Holland mountains. The landscape is vivid under the heavy grey clouds. In the distance, the Indian and Atlantic oceans crash into each other.

Right now, somewhere in that landscape, there are four dead pigs spread over 10 acres in “a secure, private location on the Cape Flats”. Their carcasses are lying inside galvanised steel cages and Finaughty goes out to the sites daily to weigh them.

Weight loss over time is an indicator of the rate of decomposition, and he uses this information, in conjunction with the weather data, to model how the bodies decompose.

This is particularly important for an area like the Cape, which is a unique biome with endemic animals and plants.

“Because of the mountain, Cape Town has seven biogeoclimatic zones, so a body found on Table Mountain will decompose at a different rate to one in a forested kloof or the Cape Flats,” he says.

Red romans

In False Bay, Speed’s pig is suspended in a stainless steel cage and a camera light flashes periodically in the murky water. She chuckles: “red romans seem to love flashing lights, so there are lots of photos of red romans.”

Unlike Finaughty’s cage, which is a metal mesh, Speed’s looks more like a 1.7m x 1.6m x 1m prison cell. She starts off explaining the cage with her hands, but soon takes out her cellphone to show me pictures of it and a photo of a red roman.

It is blurry in murky water. “Mine has large bars, so that sharks can’t take a bite of it [the pig].”

Known as “pig lady” and sometimes “Babe” by the research diving unit, Speed says: “Because of the different bays and coastlines, we’ve had cases where pieces of human bodies and bones wash up on the beach.”

Her research aims to fill in many of the blanks about what happens to human bodies after they drown or are thrown or fall into the seas ­surrounding the Cape.

The area is unique because of the meeting of the two oceans. This affects what happens to a body, from the temperature of the water, its oxygen levels and salt content to how deep it is and how far the body is from the shore.

Knowing the extent to which these factors determine body decomposition will help forensic services and the police determine how long the person has been in the water.

“I will be overjoyed if I can fit a pig into a wet suit,” Speed says. She laughs at my surprise. “That is the kind of cases we’re getting – and a wet suit preserves the body in an amazing way. Animals can’t get into the wet suit and small fish can’t chew through.”

Pivotal insects

These small animals – both on land and in water – are pivotal to the decomposition process.

Finaughty’s work focuses on the insects that drive putrefaction.

There are internal decomposers, principally the bacteria in the digestive gut, as well as external insects and scavengers.

“[We] often talk about how the climate influences the rate of decomposition, but climate does it indirectly … [for example in terms of] the timing of flies depositing new eggs and the amount of bacteria growth,” Finaughty says.

“Yes, you can pull out individual variables, but if you want to make inferences about the system as a whole, you need to look at the whole system.”

Finaughty and Speed’s research adds to the work that has already been done on human body decomposition in the Cape.

“Currently, we only have data on decomposition patterns in Gauteng and the Cape,” says the University of Pretoria’s Myburgh, whose master’s thesis was on postmortem intervals in South Africa.

There are many different climates and environments in South Africa. “Ideally,” she says, “we would like to have data from all the various regions in South Africa so we can compare the body found to local data, which will minimise the degree of error from using decomposition data from a region with a completely different type of environment.”

SOURCE: This article was first published by the Mail & Guardian on 19 February 2016.

Fingerprint brushes could transfer touch DNA, study says

Feb 15th, 2016

Locard’s Principle of Exchange has been an absolute fundamental in criminal forensics for a century. The concept that the perpetrator will always take traces of the victim and the scene with them, while leaving traces of themselves in exchange, is the basis of all modern investigation.

However, the principle has gotten a little more complex with how sensitive DNA tests have become in recent years. Secondary transfer of human DNA has been demonstrated through handshakes. Now, a study has found that fingerprint brushes used at crime scenes to find latent prints could actually be picking up and then dropping genetic material in different locations.

The DNA was found in low-copy number techniques, according to the Journal of Forensic Sciences study, authored by forensic scientists at Florida International University.

“The dusting of latent prints may dislodge cellular debris from the latent print or substrate. That debris then adheres to the brush,” they write. “This brush is then used on another item of evidence, or at another crime scene, where it is subject to the same mechanical maneuvering and where it can dislodge cellular debris, leaving traces of biological evidence not pertinent to the evidence being handled.”

The more-exacting polymerase chain reaction process of amplification led to detection of DNA transfer: in 5 of the 12 samples in the 28-cycle process, and a startling 10 of 12 tests using a post-PCR cleanup process.

But the risk of false associations based on the contaminated DNA was only “moderate,” considering their laboratory conditions and analytic procedures, they conclude.

Since the possibility exists, however, standard protocols to handling latent prints before DNA testing needs to be established to eliminate the possibility of false results.

“Under LCN conditions, it may be possible to obtain DNA results that are not relevant to the case due to a secondary transfer by fingerprint brush contamination,” they conclude. “Comparisons to these results may lead to matches or inclusions thereby potentially producing false associations between the evidence and crime scene.

“Improper procedures may lead to false exclusions or false association between evidence and crime scene,” they add.

Bruce McCord, the lead author of the study, and his team at Florida International University were the recipients of the most National Institute of Justice awards during 2015, totaling $1.5 million – partly for their DNA analysis work, and also for studies into forensic chemistry and other topics.

McCord told a university publication that he was working on a DNA analysis method for on-scene results within six minutes.

SOURCE: This article was first published online by Forensic Magazine on 12 February 2016 – http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2016/02/fingerprint-brushes-could-transfer-touch-dna-study-says

Change a Life Wonderland Cycle Tour 2016

Feb 2nd, 2016

The 2016 Change a Life Wonderland Cycle Tour, scheduled to take place from 22 to 27 September heads to the magical Island of Mauritius.

Where participants will be treated to unspoilt beaches, crystal blue waters, exclusive luxury accommodation and an adventure that will be remembered forever…

Named the Change a Life Wonderland Tour in honour of Lewis Carroll’s fantasy novel, Alice in Wonderland, it will draw on the link between one of the book’s much-loved characters and the extinct Dodo bird that was endemic to Mauritius.

70 leading South African business, political and sporting personalities will participate in the challenging 500 km ride in sublime conditions which will include the exquisite azure sea and fine white sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean island.

Mauritius also offers visitors a mountainous interior that boasts a natural park with rainforests, waterfalls, hiking trails and native fauna such as the flying fox, and the experience of a cultural melting pot that fuses the past with the future.?

To learn more, please visit www.changealifecycle.co.za

Welcome 2016!

Jan 10th, 2016

Greetings to all

As the New Year dawns, we hope 2016 is filled with the promises of a brighter tomorrow =)

Happy New Year!

4 Critical CSI Techniques Used in Terror Investigations

Nov 18th, 2015

The evening of November 13, 2015, may have begun as unremarkably as any other. By the early hours of the morning, however, a night of revelry had turned into an unconscionable tragedy — and the catastrophic loss of 129 lives.

Whilst a terrorist attack is designed to provoke panic through calculated chaos, the events that unfolded were unfortunately an echo of those that have occurred prior (and simultaneously) — by a common, real enemy.

These events engender a full-scale, comprehensive criminal investigation — especially in the event that there are suspects still at large, or insiders with prior knowledge.

Here, we recount the techniques — proven critical to gathering intelligence in the Paris attacks (November 2015) — that are used in the course of processing these scenes.

1. Severed fingers: DNA technology.

Rather remarkably, a severed finger recovered at the site of the Bataclan theatre — the seat of violence in this particular incident — led French authorities to identify the first of seven terrorists involved in the attacks.

So how does the process of identifying an attack from a mutilated body part work? Unlike a trace of bodily fluid recovered from a cleaner scene, a whole severed finger provides a copious amount of deoxyribonucleic acid, or the human body’s “blueprint” molecule. This is highly variable among a group of unrelated individuals.

The assigned technician would not, however, sequence the entirety of the genome isolated from the finger. This would be expensive, and an altogether wasteful endeavour.

DNA contains repeated sequences, with regions containing short, repeating units or STRs. For a variety of reasons — including lower mutation rates and their considerably smaller size — these shorter sequences are used to genetically differentiate people.

2. The smoking gun: ballistics testing.

The terrorists were armed with high-powered automatic weapons, thought to be Kalashnikov assault rifles. Military-class firearms, like these rifles, are prohibited across most of Europe — which raises the question: where did these individuals purchase these weapons?

The obvious answer is the black market (purchase from an illegal weapons broker) or smuggling the rifles in from abroad. Various countries in Europe have different customs regulations, which may have made it difficult to curtail the import of these weapons.

To determine precisely what firearm was fired that evening (assuming they are all the same type) — and perhaps trace the origin of this weapons to aid the investigation — ballistics analysts must examine everything from the bullet trajectory to shell casings.

Surprisingly, each type of military bullet also has a separate wound profile. By looking closely at the injuries sustained by the victims, examiners may be able to develop a more complete picture of what weapon was used.

3. Very loud noises: explosives.

The detonation of explosives outside the 80,000 capacity Stade de France was perhaps the first sign of impending danger. At this point we know that these attacks were well-coordinated: all of the suicide bombers wore nearly identical explosive devices.

The waistcoats and belts used an explosive called TATP, and contained identical batteries and push-button detonators. Triacetate tiperoxide can be produced cheaply, and using certain household ingredients.

Most likely, it took a highly-specialised and trained group of fire and explosive analysts to examine the chemical traces, or explosive residue, left behind in the debris. Samples from the surrounding areas would be tested using a variety of methods to determine precisely what compounds were utilised in the attacks.

4. Cell chatter: cybersecurity.

Digital forensics and cybersecurity — both to prevent attacks like these, and to ensure that digital infrastructure is protected — have come to the fore.

To start, an intelligence “tip-off” in this realm often begins with detection of higher “chatter” or the sheer volume of intercepted communications. However, there is evidence that the NSA has created a supercomputer (alongside its listening posts) that goes several steps farther: it looks for patterns and reveals codes in this chatter to make better sense of it.

In this case, officials in the US and Europe did pick up chatter in September about these attacks.

SOURCE: This article was first published by Forensic Outreach

DNA by the numbers

Nov 5th, 2015

Nowadays increasing numbers of evidentiary traces are collected at crime scenes and submitted for DNA analysis at the forensic laboratories. However, almost 50% of the analyzed DNA samples do not result in valuable DNA typing information (1) and a few studies show that the possibility to actually obtain usable DNA profiles can depend on the trace type (2,3). Evaluating the DNA results obtained for various sampled traces can provide us information on which traces are most promising to select for DNA analysis. Such information can guide crime scene investigators in decision-making.

The study

Six European forensic laboratories1 from the EUROFRGEN network, gathered DNA yields from over 24,466 crime-related samples that were categorized based on biological source or sampled item.  The category ‘sample type’ includes various biological sources such as bodily fluids and tissues and the category ‘sampled item’ includes several items sampled for either saliva or contact traces.

DNA yield was used to predict the DNA profiling result.  Four categories were chosen based on in-house experience: 1) full profile, 2) usable partial or full profile, 3) partial profile possibly useful, and 4) no informative profile. Details on this categorization can be found in Table 1. These four categories inform us which are the most promising samples to select for DNA analysis.

Observations and conclusions

A total of 44 categories were made for the overall categories ‘sample type’ and ‘sampled item’. The number of samples in each category varies from 18 to 7104 and the results represent trends. In Figure 1 for each sample category, the percentages of samples with an expected type of profile are shown: dark and middle green bars indicate full and usable profiles; a light bar represents possibly useful profiles and a brown bar marks the category no profile. Within the overall categories, the sample categories are ranked from lowest to highest percentage no profile expected.

When comparing sample types, we see for instance that for blood samples in 93% of the cases a full profile and in 4% no profiles may be obtained. For feaces samples, on the other hand, the percentage no profile is much higher namely 24%. This variation is also observed when comparing various sampled items likely to carry saliva or contact traces: the percentage in the ‘no profile’ category is 2% for balaclavas and 29% for bottle lids and 0% for coat collars and 44% for plastic bags.

The proximity, intensity and duration of contact seem to contribute to profiling success as saliva items balaclava, cigarette end, chewing gum and toothbrush and contact items such as collars and headwear give high percentages of full profiles.

When regarding all categories, the five most promising samples to select are muscles, blood, coat collars, cigarette ends and balaclavas. On the other end of the spectrum, the five least promising samples are hairs, plastic bags, bullets, touch traces various and grip traces various. Importantly, for all categories full and usable profiles are obtained. For the sampled item bag plastic for instance 44% of the samples categorize into ‘no  profile’ while 43% may result in a full profile.

The category ‘partial profile possibly useful’ presents uncertainty as at least a partial profile is expected but it is difficult to predict whether DNA results will be usable for comparison studies. Aspects such as the number of contributors to a profile and mixture ratios will have a role here. Notwithstanding, this collaborative study gives insight in the DNA results of the several traces and may assist crime scene investigators in their decision-making in which many other aspects such as the context of an item in to crime are relevant too.

… To continue reading the full article by Anna A. Mapes, please click here.

SOURCE: This article was first published by Forensic Magazine on 20 October 2015.

What is a human chimera?

Oct 28th, 2015

Human chimera: What the rare condition is, and why there might be many more people with it than we realised.

This article was first published online by The Independent (UK) on 27 October 2015.

Doctors are finding more and more instances of human chimeras — a condition that might affect far more people than we realise.

Human chimerism hit the headlines this week after it was revealed that a man had failed a paternity test because he had the condition — which meant that the genetic father of his child was his unborn twin.

The condition occurs when one unborn child absorbs the cells of another miscarried sibling in the womb, leading to the surviving person taking some of the genes of their “ghost” twin. That can lead to strange results in the DNA of people that have the condition — but it can often go completely unnoticed.

The condition is relatively common in some animals — but it may happen more often than we realise in humans, and go unnoticed. And it may become yet more common, as more people use fertility treatments to conceive their children.

In previous cases, people have been found to have two different blood types, or to develop different sexual organs from those that would be associated with the rest of their body.

Another example involved Karen Keegan, a woman from Boston in the US who had a different set of genes in her blood cells and her ovaries. Her children were not genetically hers — and the real genetic mother was a twin sister that was never born.

In the case of the Washington man reported this week, different genes were found in his cheek — where the saliva in the test was taken from — and his sperm. That meant that he was excluded from a paternity test, but a DNA-based ancestry check showed that he was the child’s uncle.

But many people who have the condition will never take a paternity test for their children, or find out through other means. That is likely to mean that many people could have the condition, and never know.

Studies have suggested that the condition might be present in 21 per cent of triplets, and eight per cent of twins. But many of those people would never know — because testing is likely to show up the result, unless it is being searched for.

Chimerism might already be far more common than we realise, but it could become even more prevalent, Barry Starr, a geneticist at Stanford. Fertility treatments are much more likely to lead to multiple births, and so are in turn far more likely to produce more people with chimerism.

A version of the condition called “artificial chimerism” can also occur through transfused blood stem cells — though that is less common because transfused blood now tends to be hit with radiation to help the host absorb it — or through bone marrow transplantation.

DNA Designed for Human Rights

Oct 20th, 2015

In May, human traffickers prevented thousands of Bangladeshi and ethnic Rohingya migrants from entering Thailand and Malaysia, despite extreme abuses aboard the ships including sexual assault of children and homicide. In April, thousands of northern Africans fled Libya to cross the Mediterranean, resulting in thousands ending up at the bottom of the sea. Last summer, extreme gang violence forced a surge of Central American children to migrate unaccompanied through Mexico and into the U.S. And in April 2014, the world was shocked by the brutal kidnapping of hundreds of young Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram.

Exploitation of vulnerable people around the world is a continuing reality, and unlikely to be resolved with any single effort. But measures can be taken to provide resources and assistance to address these human rights abuses. In the world of forensic sciences, this can include identification of displaced or deceased persons, and the reunification of children with their biological relatives.

Mass disasters and terrorist attacks in the last decade or so have helped to refine genetic technologies and tools necessary for kinship analysis, especially in challenged samples, advancing human rights efforts in post-mortem identification and verification of biological relationships. Improved technologies have enabled, for example, post-conflict identification efforts of victims in mass graves following several wars over the last 70 years.

However, we see few examples of our grand genomic technologies being applied to living vulnerable persons at-risk or suffering from human rights abuses, like orphans displaced by Argentina’s Dirty War, for example. The abuses we have witnessed in the past 18 months—and more are expected to come—deserve the attention and application of our refined sciences, and a cohesive response from the forensic community, armed with technology to apply the appropriate tools given the context of the crisis and the specific vulnerabilities of the population.

Valiant efforts have already been made to pilot DNA applications to high-risk populations and human trafficking cases. Five years ago, Forensic Magazine highlighted DNA-PROKIDS, a collaboration between the University of Granada and the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI), which has provided resources, database technology and training to multiple nations in need of kinship analysis for child trafficking cases. UNTCHI also has partnered with Dallas law enforcement agencies to collect DNA of at-risk sex workers as a pre-emptive, post-mortem identification program.

Project KARE has operated a similar program in Edmonton, Alberta since 2003, collecting thousands of samples from sex workers.7 Forensic Magazine also covered the pilot efforts that have been made to explore the technical feasibility of using DNA in high-risk populations and for identification of missing persons, mass disasters and deceased migrants.

Stemming from these efforts and others, several human identification databases now exist or are under development to enable post-mortem identification in high-risk populations—some that parallel, compliment or are entirely independent of CODIS. Database-sharing tools and strategies that respect jurisdictional boundaries, minimize privacy intrusions and maximize identification results must be developed and shared with the forensic community. It is imperative that efforts of stakeholders at all levels work together to have the greatest efficiency and effect…

… To read the full article by Sara Katsanis, please click here.

SOURCE: This article was first published by Forensic Magazine on 25 September 2015.