Simple EZ Sketching
Using all available Resources
Basic Concepts - Crime Scene Skill Development
Mike Byrd
Miami-Dade Police Department - Crime Scene Investigations
MIKE.Byrd2@gte.net
Michael Byrd is a 15 year veteran Investigator with the Miami - Dade County Police Department, assigned to the Crime Scene Investigations Bureau. Assigned to the Bureau's training staff, he has assited with presenting over fifty major schools since 1988. He has also taught more than one - hundred (8) hour workshops in scene evaluation, and latent fingerprint and impression recovery. He is a member of the Florida Division of the International Association for Identification, the South Florida Forensics Association, and has served as a member of the Miami - Dade County public school board's Criminal Justice Committee for three years.
The sketch of a crime scene is one of
the steps in the stages for properly processing a major case crime. There
are many publications and articles written to expand your knowledge on the
tools and procedures needed to properly prepare your crime scene sketch.
Most articles detail the procedures for the various coordinate systems which
are used to take your measurements. This will assist the investigator\technician
in finding the proper tools and systems to best handle his\her task.
For those who are still exercising the pain staking task of hand drawn diagrams or sketches, this article is written to assist the investigator\technician in using all of his\her available resources. This is an option for achieving a professional looking finished product. There are many products on the market specifically designed to assist the investigator\technican in completing the task. Those items range in price starting at $300 and escalate in price up to the thousands. There are also simple software programs which can be purchased to assist in your project with prices starting in the $30 range.
But sometimes the simplest resources are at our
fingertips.
If you have access to a computer you can
create a sharp, basic, simple and organized looking finished drawing.
Windows 95 or 98 is equipped with a simple and easy to learn paint or paint
brush program in the accessories window. It is a simple user friendly program
that can be mastered in only a few hours. As the investigator\technican becomes
more familiar with this tool by experience, his\her abilities will become
unlimited in designing and replicating the crime scene through EZ sketching.
The finished product will surpass the look of the hand drawn sketches. Ultimately
the investigator\technican will be able to achieve in 2 to 3 hours a complicated
extensive scene diagram , that now takes 5 to 6 hours to hand draw. If a
mistake is made we all know how hard it is to erase and clean up the shadows
on a hand drawn sketch. In the paint program it is as simple as going up
to the menu board and ‘undo’ up to the last 3 items constructed
in your sketch. Learn what resources you have at hand and make your job more
efficient and simple. Always make your equipment work for you!