Replaying Crime Scene with Advanced Scanner

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Police investigators often need a view of the crime scene long after it was cleared, and photos taken at the initial stages may not show all the details. The Leica Scanstation is a forensic laser scanner able to pick up the tiniest of details and recreate collisions and crime scenes in 3D.

In Canada, RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have eight scanners while Winnipeg’s Police Service has one, both agencies started using them two years ago.

The technology gives police a panoramic view of a crime long after the scene has been cleared: “You’re actually taking an investigator into the actual scene itself and walking them through,” said Joel Salinas, a retired California police officer and scanner instructor who trains police agencies around the world on the technology.

According to winnipeg.ctvnews.ca, the images the scanner picks up allow police to place new kinds of digital markers into the scene. Investigators can click through rooms or go back and look at a bullet hole up close. “It’s much tighter and more precise than any other conventional method that we have ever used,” said Sgt. Brian Harder, a forensic identification specialist investigator with Manitoba RCMP.

Winnipeg police officer showed how it works using a mock car accident, where it’s believed an impaired driver in a silver car slammed into a family in a black truck. Kullman sets up the scanner on a tripod and moves it around the collision every eight minutes to capture different angles. Kullman, who is Winnipeg police’s resident expert on the technology and a collision analyst with the traffic division, said: “It will scan a scene 360 degrees around, 390 degrees overhead, and at each station it takes 274 images”.

While police originally purchased the scanner to help gather evidence at traffic collisions, it’s being used more and more at scenes where violent crimes have taken place.

The scanners haven’t stopped police from taking photographs and measurements the more traditional way, but it can replicate a scene within a matter of hours, and fact check witness accounts. Manitoba Justice says evidence produced from a scanner in one case was presented in court and deemed admissible. “It certainly does and bolster our case in the credibility that we can present to the courts,” said Sgt. Brian Harder, RCMP.