The lens behind the law: Meet the AFP's Forensic Search and Imagery team

For many of us, our knowledge of police photography extends as far as what we see on TV.

Shows like CSI, and gritty courtroom dramas, where photographic evidence turns a case on a dime, have given us a view of the profession that suggests this work is as simple as turning up to a location and photographing the aftermath of crime.

And while this is a part of the job, the reality for the forensic photographers from the AFP’s Forensic Search and Imagery team is that no two days are ever the same.

The role can cover anything from assisting police in foreign countries with identifying the dead, to scanning plane wreckage, and photographing people for biometric comparisons.

Simone Reynolds, Team Leader at the AFP’s Canberra HQ describes her team as small and specialised, and ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice around Australia and the world. The team takes thousands of photographs each year.

Ultimately, she says, the role of the forensic photographer is to record objectively a scene, evidence, or a person.

“In the first instance, it is to create a visual record, captured at a specific moment in time, after the incident has occurred and before a detailed examination takes place. Then the examination and location of evidence is recorded in a systematic and methodical manner.”

This visual record could mean anything from scenes relating to property crime, such as stolen vehicles, burglaries, and theft; armed robberies, sexual assaults, fire and bomb scenes, deaths, suicides, homicides, accidental deaths including drownings, and post-mortems; clandestine drug laboratories, organised crime warrants; forensic procedures on victims and suspects, through to disaster victim identification, and terrorism incidents.

In her current role, Reynolds has worked across various difficult investigations, and she has been deployed overseas to aircraft crashes, terrorism incidents or to assist local authorities with specialist scene examinations.

It’s something Reynolds continues to find confronting.

Her training was tested in October 2013 when a Laos Airlines flight crashed in Southern Laos, killing all 49 on board, including six Australians.

“I was required to photograph and record the remains of the passengers,” she says. “This was one of the more difficult incidents for me, as it involved young children and babies.”

Obviously, she reflects, traumatic scenes are confronting and always difficult to photograph, and mortuaries and hospitals are difficult environments to work in.

At the same time, her work can also assist overseas investigations, such as in 2009 when an Airlines PNG Twin Otter charter plane crash killed 13 people, including nine Australians. At the time, the ABC reported that all were on their way to walk the Kokoda Track.

“I was based in Australia and photographed the dental records of the Australian passengers on a light box with a digital camera so that we could quickly send the images to PNG to assist with the rapid identification of victims,” she recalls.

“Prior to digital technology we would have had to send someone to deliver the X-rays by hand to PNG, which would have taken a couple of days instead of a couple of hours.”

However, few jobs could ever compare to capturing the aftermath of the 2002 Bali Bombings.

“I examined and photographed inside the house where terrorists constructed the explosive device for the bombings,” she recalls.

“It was one of the more stressful crime scenes I have attended, given the gravity of the incident and the fact the AFP was assisting Indonesian authorities.”

“We had restricted time at the scene, so I had to take as many photographs as I could in a short period of time. We were still using both film and digital cameras at this stage. In the end, I used a small compact digital camera for some of the scene shots as a backup in case there was a problem with the film.”

As these investigations show, the scope and use of forensic photography is surprisingly wide and varied, and that is just in the field.

Back in the office, detailed images of fingerprints and faces may be used for biometric comparative purposes, and non-biometric comparisons, such as fracture fits, pattern match, pattern continuity, tool mark comparisons, shoe, and tyre mark comparisons.

Reynolds explains that these images may be used to record details of evidence such as its location, description, and its condition. It also captures police evidence numbers, markers, unique identifiers, and the condition of any evidence packaging.

And this is all before the more traditional uses that movie and TV viewers will be familiar with, such as the use of imagery in court.

The field work

Police photographers do not get to choose the lighting conditions, weather, or time of day when they work, and they almost always need to work quickly and very, very thoroughly.

At the scene some things are immediately important, such as clear evidence, marks, significant items, street signs and house numbers, and anything that can prove visually that the evidence collected was at a specific location.

Other items may emerge as important later in an investigation. That is why it is so vital that scenes are photographed comprehensively.

Arriving at a scene the forensic photographer will first liaise with other investigators to develop an examination plan. Reynolds explains that recording the scene is generally the first step in the examination plan.

Then, once the order in which the scene will be examined and evidence will be collected has been determined, the photographer will use number markers, labels, or other visual aids, to help locate evidence within a scene and give each evidence item a unique identifier. The photographer will then record the scene with photography, and in relevant notes.

“Generally, for every area or item of interest there will be at least three photos, close-up, mid-range, and overall.

“We must be able to assist people who view the images, including investigators, lawyers, or a member of a jury, to orientate themselves within a scene and understand the location of critical evidence in relation to areas of significance. This can include the location and orientation of say a shoe impression left by an offender near the body of a deceased person.”

Another technique is to ‘corner a room’ which means taking images from each corner of a room of interest, ensuring there is overlap in the images so that the viewer can orientate themselves between images. Number markers are very useful in aiding with this.

“For scene images, we must ensure images accurately depict the scene,” explains Reynolds.

“They cannot be over or under-exposed and we need to ensure the white balance is correct for ambient light so that colours are correct. This may be important for witness statements.

“Any difference between my photos and a witness statement may become an issue raised in court, such as an item being described as red but appearing orange in photos.”

Tricks of the trade

With images that will be used for comparisons, forensic photographers will try to maximise the contrast between the mark, for example, a fingerprint, and the surface.

“We can use different coloured fingerprint powders depending on whether the surface is dark or light, transparent or opaque. We also have florescent powders if the surface is multi-coloured, for example, black and white print, and will use a UV light to illuminate these,” she clarifies.

To photograph at night or in darkened areas, the team use tripods with timed or long exposures and will ‘paint’ with light in poorly lit or unevenly lit outdoor scenes. But the use of flash must be carefully controlled, as uneven lighting can greatly influence the final image.

“Generally, painting with light is used for dark outdoor scenes and scenes with uneven lighting, such as a vehicle on a dark road, or a firearm or knife in an alley,” she explains.

In some cases, photographers will use a torch to direct and bounce light, always considering other light sources and reflective surfaces and how these can influence the final photo. Using an off-camera flash helps visualise surface detail for 2D or 3D fingerprints and shoe marks.

“It’s important we use different levels of flash across a scene to create even lighting across the image, rather than having full flash from one direction giving harsh shadows and bright flares or hotspots,” she says.

The aim is to reduce under or over-exposed areas in the one image, while also maximising detail that can assist the investigation or the court.

“We have also used this technique to overlay a laser on the image of a scene to record the trajectory of a bullet at a shooting,” she adds.

Camera craft

When it comes to image capture, the team’s preference is to use manual mode. However, this makes the photographic process more time consuming as the photographer will often be moving from outside to inside for example, and through rooms. Some environments may have fluoro lights, others LED, and others no lighting at all.

“We are often busy managing the whole crime scene, so using some auto functions can assist with efficiency, such as auto white balance.”

Reynolds adds, “Aperture priority is also useful, as depth-of-field tends to be quite important to ensure all the relevant details of an area or item are in focus. ISO tends to not exceed 400 to avoid any loss of fine detail.”

Image use

Interestingly, the team has chosen to just capture JPEGs rather than RAW, following issues with file compatibility and improvements in camera technology and resolution. And while the team are long since converts to digital photography, Reynolds does note that it can be a little too easy to take too many images, rather than spending time framing the best shot.

The number of images typically taken at a crime scene depends entirely on the job.

A more complex incident such as a homicide or an incident that involves multiple scenes over multiple days, such as incident location, secondary location, and vehicle involved in the incident, for example, can often mean hundreds of images are taken.

Image protection

Security and integrity of the images is, as you would expect, vital.

“We have very strict image management procedures so we can provide evidence that images were not manipulated, and to prevent images being accidentally deleted. After capture, images are uploaded to our forensic management system.

This system and other similar systems used by other law enforcement agencies log access and any changes made and are auditable by regulatory bodies if required. It means we can log and track any time an image is accessed,” she explains.

Secure storage of images is also a priority.

“We identified very early that proprietary formats and file compatibility was a potential concern, so we are focused on developments in digital technologies to forecast and manage any potential issues.

“We have developed very stringent standard operating procedures, and we regularly assess those against developments in technology,” she explains.

“We used to create two copies of all images and save those on CDs or DVDs in different areas, one for archival purposes and the other for case officers, defence, and prosecutors.”

A reflection

Reflecting on what is obviously to outsiders one of the toughest jobs in photography, Simone Reynolds has a simple message. ‘It’s a real honour,’ she believes.

“Serving the community is what drives you – but your ability to help the most vulnerable in our community is what makes the job easier during the tough jobs,” she says. ❂