For many years, the forensics team at the West Valley City Police Department had to cart around some very heavy laser-type equipment when detailing a crime scene. But they don’t have to do that anymore.

The PD recently acquired a Leica-C 10 scanner, a one-piece device that takes the place of the previous scanner–a six-piece apparatus that took a lot of time to set up, not to mention it weighed 60 pounds.

“The new scanner is about the best technology I’ve seen for helping with forensics at a crime scene,” said Amanda Bennett, director of the seven-person Forensics Unit at WVCPD. “The scanner is easy to carry in a lightweight bag, easy to set up, and can give us an accurate depiction of the scene.”

Before scanning technology like this, forensics teams and investigators had to do everything from tape measuring distances and size of objects to drawing the layout of a room or location. 

“When we were taking measurements, we had to detail everything because we didn’t know at that moment what might or might not be important as the case was investigated,” Bennett said. “We already have a lot of unknowns as we start investigations, but with the laser scanner we can get a lot of the details all at once. No chance of human error for drawing something wrong or missing a corner of a room. We capture it all.”

Bennett said investigators have a lot of information they need to gather at a crime scene–weapons, footprints, fingerprints and more. That includes pages and pages of measurements that were in the past recorded by hand. After that, information was brought back to the crime lab where more time was spent entering it into a system to create a two-dimensional computer-aided design, known as a CAD drawing.

“Those produced a birds-eye view from above a scene, but couldn’t really capture all of the features of a room,” she said. “It was hard to portray to a jury what the relationship was to a room or yard with the incident that occurred inside.”

The department purchased its first laser—the heavy six-piece laser—13 years ago. It took about 16 to 20 minutes to complete a scan of a crime scene, but was line-of-sight only. So if a piece of furniture or a half wall or counter was in the way, the scanner was blocked from recording some parts of the scene. 

“Our new laser scanner collects 680,000 points of measurement per second, and the scans now take two to four minutes, depending on the resolution,” Bennett said. “It can be run off of a phone or iPad, and that info can be shared quickly with others such as investigators who might be working at a different location.”

She said the new scanner also helps prevent contamination at a crime scene, as fewer people have to walk around taking measurements. She said it helps the department’s media team share information through press releases without them having to come to the scene.

“When we used to go out on a call, I think we wished the room was just a nicely-shaped square, so it would be easy for us to draw,” Bennett said with a smile. “Personally, I’m not a good artist, and I was worried that I might miss something when we were under pressure to get information quickly to investigators. With the Leica-C 10 scanner, we no longer have that worry.”

The department has a similar scanner that is larger in size and used by the traffic department when investigating an accident. Technology allows them to be merged together when necessary for investigations. λ