Forensic photography

Definition: Photography used to document crime and accident scenes and to provide visual exhibits for legal proceedings.

Significance: Photographs taken at crime scenes serve to preserve forensic evidence so that investigators can later examine scenes that have been processed and no longer exist. Forensic photographs can help in the legal resolution of both recent and cold cases by revealing details that prove who committed crimes and how.

Soon after cameras were invented, photographs began to be used to capture evidence of crimes and for other legal purposes. In 1839, Jacques Daguerre, a pioneer in the technology of photography, took a photograph that proved a spouse’s infidelity in a French divorce case. Several years later, police in Paris, France, began photographing apprehended criminals. Since that time, forensic photographs have documented many kinds of crime, including theft, assault, and document fraud. The 1959 quadruple murders that are the subject of Truman Capote’s book In Cold Blood (1966) provide a notable example of an investigation aided by forensic photography: Kansas investigator Harold Nye’s photographs of the crime scene exposed a shoe print that detectives used to identify a suspect who was later convicted.

Procedures and Strategies

Immediately after law-enforcement officials respond to crime or accident scenes, specially trained photographers use their skills and camera equipment to record crucial information at the scenes on digital storage devices or black-and-white or color film, depending on how quickly the investigators need images. In addition to forensic photography specialists, various law-enforcement professionals carry cameras and incorporate forensic photography among their assignments. Photography enables investigators to capture images of large pieces of evidence that cannot be removed from crime or accident scenes; it also allows the quick documentation of temporary or fragile evidence, such as prints or tracks, that weather might obliterate. Adjusting to all kinds of situations, forensic photographers take shots of many types of evidence, including wounds, skid marks, license plates, and razed building sites.

Prior to shooting photographs at crime scenes, forensic photographers consult with the law-enforcement personnel present regarding photography needs and assess the scenes to evaluate lighting conditions and whether specific lenses, filters, or flashbulbs will be needed to improve the clarity of the photos. Wearing protective clothing so that they do not contaminate any evidence, photographers document crime scenes during three stages of shooting, emphasizing accuracy, not aesthetics. First, they take overview photos from various directions and wide angles to capture comprehensive pictures of the sites, with each piece of evidence identified with a numbered marker for legal reference. They then move closer to specific pieces of evidence to take midrange shots that show the locations of those items and provide site context for them. Finally, they take close-up photos of individual pieces of evidence, first placing a ruler next to each item to indicate size. In addition to taking photos, forensic photographers keep notes, compiling information about each photograph, such as time taken.

Awareness of lighting and framing techniques enables forensic photographers to capture images of tire treads, shattered glass around bullet holes, and other damage that might otherwise be obscured. Forensic photographers use luminol as well as infrared and ultraviolet light sources to reveal otherwise invisible evidence, including dried blood and latent fingerprints, so that this evidence can be preserved in photographs. Photomicrography, a laboratory technique that couples the camera and the microscope, expands forensic photography options, producing images of evidence that are highly magnified.

Law-enforcement personnel also value aerial and underwater photography for forensic uses when crime scenes involve vast areas or when evidence is submerged. In addition, the field of forensic photography encompasses the use of photography during police surveillance, when investigators watch and photograph people or places suspected of being involved in criminal activity.

Video photography has a number of uses in law enforcement. Investigators frequently use forensic videography to scan crime scenes, and police sometimes videotape suspects while they interrogate them or to document confessions. Still photographs from videos and security cameras are considered evidence; measurements in such forensic images are determined through photogrammetry.

Legal Applications

Photographs often help investigators comprehend what occurred during a crime. Police detectives scrutinize crime scene photographs, and occasionally in reviewing such photos they notice details of which they were unaware at the scene or only later realized were significant in context with other information. In addition, detectives frequently use forensic images to verify details they describe in their reports.

Photographs also help both investigators and witnesses to identify suspects, particularly when the photos depict crimes in progress or culprits at scenes. When suspects are arrested, law-enforcement agencies take photographs of them (so-called mug shots) and add these photographs to computerized databases of known and suspected criminals.

Legal personnel prepare forensic photographs, often enlarging them, for use in courtrooms; frequently the purpose of presenting such photos is to stress the links between the suspects or evidence pictured and crimes. Police often use photographs to prove that particular vehicles and drivers were involved in traffic and parking infractions. In addition to being useful in court, photographs of injuries and of damages to structures and vehicles suffered during crimes can support insurance claims and help victims gain compensation.

Many misconceptions about forensic photography have been fostered by inaccurate portrayals in the mass media, and some observers have asserted that jurors sometimes have unrealistic expectations regarding the photographs used in courtrooms. Forensic photography experts aim to provide images that accurately portray crime scenes and evidence, that have not been altered, and that do not represent biases. International, U.S., and state courts have ruled on many legal cases in which the issue was whether specific photographs were admissible evidence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Scientific Working Group on Imaging Technologies has created guidelines concerning the presentation of legally acceptable forensic photographs and videos.

The Evidence Photographers International Council (EPIC) sponsors training programs for forensic photographers and publishes the Journal of Evidence Photography. Collegiate criminal justice programs and law-enforcement and photography associations offer classes to educate forensic photographers.

Bibliography

Bevel, Tom, and Ross M. Gardner. Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: With an Introduction to Crime Scene Reconstruction. 3rd ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2008.

Blitzer, Herbert L., and Jack Jacobia. Forensic Digital Imaging and Photography. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 2002.

Buckley, Cara. “In Domestic Abuse, Digital Photos Can Say More Than Victims.” The New York Times, May 7, 2007, p. B1.

Redsicker, David R. The Practical Methodology of Forensic Photography. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press. 2001.

Robinson, Edward M. Crime Scene Photography. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 2007.