LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Law enforcement investigators from across Nevada rely on one Las Vegas Valley forensic lab to analyze critical crime scene evidence: footprints and tire tracks.
The Henderson Forensic Laboratory is the only facility in the state with critical technology to analyze footprints and tire prints in their latent processing room.
The Henderson Police Department utilizes the lab, but law enforcement agencies from across the state send about 30 cases a year to the team for footprint and tire track analysis.
“[Suspects] have to enter and exit a crime scene either by foot or vehicle or both. They’re bound to leave tracks and trails. With enough information and detail in that impression that’s left behind, we can sometimes conclusively identify it to one single source,” said Criminalistics Administrator Tanya Hiner.
It takes three years to train in footprint and tire track analysis. An additional three forensics experts are undergoing training right now, Hiner said.
FOX5’s Jaclyn Schultz spoke in-depth with Hiner about the critical technology and crime-fighting efforts.
JACLYN: How have advancements in technology really helped with footprint and tire print analysis?
TANYA HINER: Like any science, forensic science is always getting better over time. Now we have databases that we can search for outsoles.
If we have a bottom of a shoe that’s left an impression at a scene, and that’s all we have, we can put those elements into a database and search to try to find “make and model” of that shoe, which can help facilitate that investigation.
If a suspect is developed and they have those shoes, then we can get those shoes through a warrant and do a comparison.
JACLYN: What can a tire print tell us?
TANYA HINER: The same thing with a tire. When we’re looking at prints, we’re looking at physical size. We’re looking at the make and model, brand, size of that tire. We’re looking at pitch sequence.
When a tire is actually manufactured… they actually vary in pitch or size. That actually helps reduce the amount of noise that a tire makes when it’s driving down on the road. A passenger car is going to be very silent.
That’s designed into the mold when they make those tires. We can use that to– out of 9 feet of tire– find one place from this tire impression from the scene. Once we find that one location, then we can look to determine if there’s individual randomly-acquired characteristics.
When a car tire is driving, it can pick up rocks that can get embedded into the tread. Little nicks or cuts can be taken out of the bottom of the tread. We can compare those individual characteristics to the tire and use that for an identification process.
JACLYN: It’s almost as good as a fingerprint, or as good as a fingerprint?
TANYA HINER: Absolutely. It is a means of identification, as long as there’s enough information in that impression that we get from the crime scene.
JACLYN: How crucial is this [technology] to solve crimes?
TANYA HINER: It can be very crucial. When we’re talking accumulation of evidence and identifying evidence to a specific source, that helps with the entire case.
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