This week holds two days during which we are 
encouraged to thank and remember those who protect us: Peace Officers Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day.
TRITECHFORENSICS would like to say thank you to the men and women who don a uniform and stand up to those who would harm us. It is your service and sacrifices that allow us to live in safety. We appreciate all of the many duties, from clerical to clergy to combat, that you perform. You are our heroes.
From ComputerWeekly.com:
The RMP is the Army’s technical investigative organisation and has 15 high tech crime personnel within its Cyber Crime Centre. The body assists with digital investigations by the civilian police because of its advanced digital forensics technology, and handles between 100 to 150 cases a year.
Each case uses up to 3Tb of data, with a single arrest involving the seizure and investigation of smartphones, laptops, USB drives, TVs, tablets and gaming devices, with gigabytes of data stored on each.
Previously, RMP officers used a dedicated tower computer for each case, with individual workstations tied up for weeks by a single case. But the body implemented the AccessData LAB 18 months ago to allow multiple investigators to collaborate on early case assessment.
Read the article:
Learn how the new technology improved investigations on computerweekly.com.
TRITECH Digital FORENSICS was pleased to read this article regarding the advancement of digital forensics equipment. It confirmed our Velocity DataCenter Laboratory Solution is on the right technology fast track to provide needed speed, storage, and power to Digital Forensics labs. With our scalable DataCenter, it is possible to operate more efficiently and increase processing time. Currently the DataCenter architecture is designed to run both the latest versions of Access Data FTK as well as Guidance Software EnCase, the most commonly used forensic software programs, and as these vendors release new software, TTF will work with both parties to ensure the DataCenter is capable of running the latest versions. Our DataCenter will provide the needed speed, storage, and power to your agency, allowing investigators to focus on the investigation rather than the equipment.
Photographs are an integral part to
documenting any crime scene, 
especially when … used as evidence in court. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says, “Photo’s is (sic) what sells it to a jury.”
“Everything has to be perfect and that’s part of what the documentation piece is. [It] is having really, really good photographic documentation,” says William Green, California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center Medical Director.
Roughly 20 nurses from five north (California) state hospitals, gathered at the Chico Police and Fire Training Center Thursday for an extensive one-day forensic photography course. Oroville Hospital Nurse Deborah McIntyre says, “When you keep telling the same story over and over again, things change. You document it in a certain way and that way the story doesn’t change.”
The training, organized by the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center, helps these nurses expand their current medical exams of sexual assault victims by teaching them the proper way to document the evidence. “We want to collect the evidence that the DA’s office wants and the DOJ wants. And we want to collect it in a way they want us to collect it, that they can use it,” McIntyre says.
Read the rest of this story and watch the video on khsltv.com.
TRITECHFORENSICS offers a wide variety of photographic supplies to forensic professionals, including scales and scale tape, photo direction markers, a photo documentation kit, a photo marking kit, SceneVision Panorama software for creating panoramic photo images, and even Canon and Nikon cameras. We also provide Sexual Assault Evidence Collection kits to agencies world-wide. Need a special product? Contact us for assistance in locating the items you need! We can even create custom kits with your choice of forms, products, and containers.
Click here for evidence photography supplies and here for cameras. Click the photo above to view our Sexual Assault Evidence Collection kits and supplies.
Act Now To Win This Kit!
If you aren’t receiving our monthly newsletters, you may not be aware of our Thursday Giveaways. This Thursday’s prize is worth heading over to our Facebook page and giving us the thumbs-up. Valued at $139.15, our Serial Number Restoration Kit includes everything you need to recover serial numbers or other obliterated identifying markings on objects such as weapons, tools, cameras, electronic equipment, machinery, automotive engine blocks or frames.
Want more information on the kit? Check out all of our serial number restoration products here.
Visit our Facebook page here. Click on the Thursday Giveaway button and enter from there.
Congratulations to our winner, Randy Horton, of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office! Be sure to check out our facebook page to enter the next Thursday Giveaway!
Be careful who you kiss; you could be sharing more than you think you are.
Courtesy Allison Cooper/stock.xchng
According to researchers in Slovakia, when you kiss your partner passionately, not only do you exchange bacteria and mucus, you also impart some of your genetic code. No matter how fleeting the encounter, the DNA will remain in their mouth for at least an hour. This means that women’s saliva could contain evidence of unwanted attention in cases of assault, or even telltale signs of infidelity.
Natália Kamodyová and her colleagues at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, recruited 12 couples who agreed to kiss each other passionately for at least 2 minutes. Afterwards, saliva samples were collected from the women at 5, 10, 30 and 60-minute intervals. Because Kamodyová’s method relies on detection of the Y chromosome, it can only be used to identify a man’s DNA in a woman’s saliva.
The results show that the man’s DNA was still present and could be detected through amplification after at least an hour, and possibly longer.
Read the rest of this story from New Scientist.
TRITECHFORENSICS carries many DNA Collection Kits, including buccal swab collection for both victim and suspect, fingerstick kits, postmortem, and missing persons DNA collection kits. Click here to see our line of DNA Collection Kits.
Tritech is also one of the world’s largest and most experienced providers of custom DNA Collection Kits. Our customers know with Tritech they are putting their kits in good hands. We take all necessary steps to ensure kits leaving our facility are held to the highest standards, from the initial custom design consultation to the careful packaging in our shipping department. For more information on creating your own custom kit, request a quote from our Custom Products Department.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Darron Salzer)
Flu cases continue to spread …, and now so is the concern it will affect large numbers of emergency crews, especially paramedics and police. Some law enforcement agencies are now stocking their squad cars with masks, asking officers to wear them on certain calls. A mask is the last thing you’d think of as a weapon police need to carry, but they have become the best weapon Green Bay Police have to fight the flu.
“We put these down in the roll call, and we’re encouraging the officers to take a few with them, put them in their jacket pockets or just throw them in their briefcase,” says Green Bay Police Captain Bill Galvin.
Police sent out a memo to all officers Monday, strongly encouraging them to wear masks if they’re around anyone with flu symptoms, especially if they go into any of the hospital emergency rooms.
“We’re not requiring them but we’re strongly advising them. We can ill afford to have an epidemic sweep through our department,” says Galvin.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department feels the same way and Wednesday started supplying all its squad cars and offices with masks.
Read the entire story by Sarah Thomsen and watch the video on wbay.com from Northeast Wisconsin.
To support the forensic professionals we serve, TRITECHFORENSICS is temporarily reducing the price of our masks and gloves by 15% through February 18, 2013.
The Violent Brain: Ingredients of a Mass Murderer
On July 20, 2012, a heavily armed young man walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and opened fire on the audience, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 60.
Here’s the thing: On paper, James Holmes measured up seemingly well. Intelligent, disciplined, and raised by successful parents—his father, a senior scientist; mother, a nurse. Holmes graduated from UC San Diego at the top of his class and was working towards a PhD in neuroscience. It’s hard to imagine that this would be a person to carry out one of the nation’s deadliest recent massacres. But upon taking a closer look into the details of his behavior and characteristics leading up the massacre, experts agree that he does indeed fit the profile of a typical mass murderer.
Holmes has been put behind bars, but the question still lingers: What drives someone to go on such a violent rampage, indiscriminately killing innocent people? Are there clear motives behind these violent acts? Insanity, or a psychotic break? An absent conscience? Or are some people just born natural killers?
Researchers have posed the same questions and, with recent scientific advancements, have been able to note personality-based, neurological and even genetic-based commonalities in these violent individuals. Most experts will agree that there isn’t a single determining factor that creates a mass murderer, but when multiple triggers are combined, a killer is born.
What are those triggers? Is it possible to identify a killer before he or she strikes?
Read the entire story by Lauren Migliore on BrainWorldMagazine.com.
By the time his police cruiser tumbled to a halt in the underbrush beside the interstate in August, the young police officer had been flung clear of the car to his death, the same fate that had been suffered by 139 other officers
nationwide who were ejected from their vehicles when not using a seat belt.
Although most state’s laws require police to use seat belts, federal data show that only about half of them do, and over the past three decades, 19 percent of the officers killed in accidents were ejected from their vehicles.
“We’ve been told it’s ‘I want to be able to get out of the car quickly, it interferes with my gun or it interferes with my belt, it interferes with my driving.’ All the wrong reasons,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina professor who has studied high-risk police activities for more than 25 years. “I can understand if you’re pulling up to a scene and you undo your seat belt because you want to be able to get out quickly, but not when you’re going 100 miles an hour on the freeway.” Read more of this story here.
What do you think? Should police officers wear seat belts? Is it safer to patrol with or without them?
(Story available on EnidNews.com)Today is the 71st anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that drew the United States into World War II. The “Greatest Generation” gave up much in order to overcome those who were consumed by greed and evil, and the world owes them a large debt of gratitude. Here are five ways you can say thank you:
1. Visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. Located on the National Mall, it combines elements of water, granite, and bronze to memorialize the more than 405,000 lives sacrificed during this war. For more information about this National Park, visit their website here.
2. Thank a veteran by sending a letter to your local military organization (think VFW or American Legion, for instance). A simple thank you can go a long way.
3. Interview a veteran for the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress. This project collects the memories of veterans and preserves them in order to allow future generations to truly understand the realities of war.
4. Read about World War II. Once Upon A Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene shares the story of a town’s reaction to the trains moving troops through their town and how they sacrificed for the soldiers. Another well-known book, The Greatest Generation, shares stories from both home and abroad.
5. Learn more about Honor Flight, an organization that flies World War II veterans to Washington, DC, to see their memorial. Free of charge to the veterans, this flight gives many veterans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience our nation’s appreciation for their service.
Thank you to the veterans of World War II and to their loved ones who also sacrificed to keep us free.
Tomorrow, Americans will celebrate
Thanksgiving, 
our unique holiday originating in 1621 when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered for a celebratory feast after a successful harvest. Before you settle down for a hearty meal of turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie, check out some of the facts about the day. When Uncle Louie starts in with his take on the last election, you can quickly change the subject and share your new-found trivia with the family.
GET THE FACTS
Videos, articles, and trivia are available on history.com. Watch the short videos about thanksgiving (fun facts, football, turducken, the Mayflower deconstructed, floats, and more) and read over the Fact or Fiction questions guaranteed to make your relatives think you are a genius! (Fact or Fiction: Two turkeys received a trip to Disney World to celebrate their official pardon.) Don’t miss the moving video, History Says Thanks, in which History Channel employees thank their relatives for their military service.
ANOTHER VERSION
Looking for the other side of the story? Though some may find it controversial, the information presented on indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com is worth reading for its attempt at presenting the Thanksgiving story from the side of the Wampanoag Indians. Were they truly invited to a celebration or were they present as a way of defending settlers from danger? What disease killed two-thirds of the Indians before the Pilgrims arrived? Why were the Indians unafraid when they saw the Pilgrim ships?
FUN FOR THE KIDS
National Geographic has Thanksgiving games (trivia, puzzles, etc.) based on the holiday as well as other ideas for keeping little ones busy on Thursday. Crafts, journals, and computer games – perfect for keeping the kids out of your hair while you watch football or shop those Black Thursday and Friday sales!
BEING THANKFUL
If you want to really focus on the meaning of the holiday, that of being thankful, read David Hochman’s account of “going grateful” for thirty days on the Readers Digest website. In How to be Thankful and Improve Your Life, Hochman shares his adventures and how you can join him in the Be Thankful movement. The benefits can be life-changing!
From all of us at TRITECHFORENSICS, may your Thanksgiving be a special and happy one.
