? for LEO's

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Hollywood or not.....

 

In the movies, the criminal takes out their handkerchief and wipes finger prints off the murder weapon.

The weapon becomes 'clean' of prints.

 

Also in the movies, when the appropriate law enforcement guru shows up and discovers the probable murder weapon, they take out their hanky and pick up the weapon and often wrap it up in that hanky.

 

Wouldn't that in effect also remove print evidence?

 

 

..........Widder

 

[Seldom Seen #16162]

Yes

[Presidio]

Yep, very good chance of eliminating any prints and/or contaminating evidence by using your hanky.

 

Plastic gloves are always a must when investigating a crime scene.

 

 

 

Good sturdy pen would be preferable by sticking in end of barrel or through the finger guard of a pistol.

 

Rifles and shotguns by the butt and end of muzzle of barrel.

 

Knives and other weapons need to be assessed on a case by case evaluation of retrieval.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Somebody should tell Walt Longmire. He touches and moves everything around at the crime scene. Vic wears gloves, he doesn't.

[Jackson Rose, SASS #45478]

If the grips are checkered the gun can be picked up that way. I used to put a string through the trigger guard and suspend it in a box. Rubbing on cardboard or packaging can ruin prints. Also had to make sure it was safe to transport and safe for the ballistician to handle. DA revolvers and autos were easy. SA's had to be made safe. Always wore gloves.If you were careful you could decock and make safe without touching likely fingerprint surfaces. Nowadays you have to be careful not to leave your DNA on the gun.

[MAYOBARD SASS #13025L]

You pick up the item by wearing plastic gloves, and trying to use unprintable areas, and promptly put it in an evidence bag so as not to contaminate the evidence. It could contain DNA or prints. Unlike TV, the only time they check things for DNA are serial crimes (Murder, Rape, etc...).

[Utah Bob #35998]

Somebody should tell Walt Longmire. He touches and moves everything around at the crime scene. Vic wears gloves, he doesn't.

Walt can do anything he wants.

[Dubious Don #56333]

LOL, getting prints off a gun isn't that easy. If there's oil it will fiddle the prints. Dust, crud...same thing. Many surfaces you handle are checkered/grooved/textured and you're not getting any prints off that the normal way. There are things that can be done; couple cases I worked the ID techs used these cool little gel pads to lift (among other prints like shoeprints...even solved a case or two with cheek/ear prints) prints off textured surfaces.

 

AFIS is a true wonder. Used to be you needed almost a full print and unless you had a suspect, good luck matching that off a ten print fingerprint card! It takes seconds for the computer to match even a partial print.Feed it into the machine and bing-bang-boom you got your suspect! Su yeah, if there's prints on the front strap, barrel, slide or ammo you might get something. Paper bags good. Plastic not so much. Don't jumble things too much or have the techs do it at the scene.

 

DNA is another thing entirely. Think about this; your body sheds skin cells...all the time everywhere. Glove up before you handle anything and don't let your bare skin rub up against surfaces you're going to test.

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

All I know is that I still test all the drugs I find using the switchblade taste test.

[Widder, SASS #59054]

All I know is that I still test all the drugs I find using the switchblade taste test.

 

Thats how the revenuers did it to test White Lightnin (Moonshine). Heck, some of them would even take TWO 'snorts'..... . And when they did it out of EACH jug (or mason jar), their job became very interesting.....

 

 

..........Widder

[Utah Bob #35998]

All I know is that I still test all the drugs I find using the switchblade taste test.

I had to slap a foil packet out of a rookie's hand once when he tried that. TV can kill.

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

 

Thats how the revenuers did it to test White Lightnin (Moonshine). Heck, some of them would even take TWO 'snorts'..... . And when they did it out of EACH jug (or mason jar), their job became very interesting.....

 

 

..........Widder

 

Seems reasonable hahaha

I had to slap a foil packet out of a rookie's hand once when he tried that. TV can kill.

I've never had a rookie try that, but I have had one try to take a sniff of a huffer's bag to see what he was sniffing ....that got knocked out of his hand too....

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

I had to slap a foil packet out of a rookie's hand once when he tried that. TV can kill.

I never understood the taste test. What's it supposed to taste like? And how would this rookie know what was real or not by tasting it?

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

I never understood the taste test. What's it supposed to taste like? And how would this rookie know what was real or not?

In fact I'd be kind of worried if he did know what it was supposed to taste like..haha

[Sacramento]

The hankie is way old school from much farther back than I go. I think it started with detective movies from the 30's (I am old but not quite that old).

 

On the flip side, if you pick up the firearm from the sides of the trigger guard, you are not endangering any prints, no surface there to collect them.