International Association of Chiefs of Police
Forensic Science Committee
August Vollmer Award Winners 2012
Current or Past Contribution to Forensic Science by an Individual
Winner: Detective Jason Moran, Cook County Sheriff’s Department
In 2010, the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department (IL) utilized DNA technology to identify a
unidentified deceased person. Detective Jason Moran led the investigation and was able to learn the
events that led up to the individual’s death. As a result of this, Detective Moran searched the cold case
files and located cases where forensic technology could be utilized to identify unidentified deceased
persons. Detective Moran found that eight of the thirty-three victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy,
who sexually assaulted and murdered over thirty teenage boys and young men in the Chicagoland area
between 1972 and 1978, had never been identified.
In October 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced that the Gacy Case was reopened. The
investigation began by obtaining a DNA profile from each of the unidentified victims. Detective Moran
transported eight sets of mandible and maxilla bones to the University of Northern Texas Center for
Human Identification (UNTCHI). The UNTCHI obtained DNA profiles of each, however although all eight
sets the bones rendered full mitochondrial (mtDNA) profiles, only four rendered nuclear (STR) profiles.
Additional testing was completed and STR profiles for two more victims were obtained.
Sheriff Dart encouraged families to come forward and submit reference samples if they suspected that
their family member was killed by Gacy or went missing during the time of the murders. A database and
call center were created to collect the family information. Over 150 submissions and calls have been
documented; Detective Moran has assessed each and every one.
One of the first leads was from Laura O’Leary and Robert Bundy. They were searching for their brother
William “Bill” Bundy. Detective Moran interviewed Laura and Robert and collected family reference
samples. After processing, Detective Moran was notified by the lab that the samples were consistent
with the DNA profile of victim #19. Detective Moran notified Laura and Robert that their brother Bill
was murdered by Gacy.
Since reopening the Gacy Case, Detective Moran has closed three cold missing person cases by locating
individuals who were thought to have been killed by the infamous killer. Detective Moran continues to
evaluate leads and collect family samples. He’s confident that the remaining unidentified victims will be
identified. Detective Moran recently organized a training seminar with ViCap, NamUs, and UNTCHI and
has completed detailed analysis of Cook County’s burial of indigent, unclaimed, and unidentified
deceased person processes. He has found deficiencies that prevent law enforcement from associating
missing person’s cases with unidentified deceased person’s cases. Detective Moran has established an
investigative template for other law enforcement agencies that can dramatically impact these types of
cases in an area that has been neglected for so long.
Current or Past Collaboration in Forensic Science
Winner: Vancouver Police Department (VPD), Integrated Riot Investigation Team
On June 15, 2011, in Vancouver, Canada over 150,000 people took to the streets after the Stanley Cup
final game; what followed resulted in the largest Canadian criminal investigation of its type. Rioters
destroyed property, looted businesses, started fires, and assaulted those who got in their way.
Hundreds engaged in criminal acts while thousands more formed a sea of encouraging spectators, many
recording the “action” on their handheld electronic devices.
A seventy-member Integrated Riot Investigation Team (IRIT) composed of eight police agencies was
formed in the days following. In effect a mid-size police department was created from the ground up;
together with vehicles, office space, computers and staffing resources. Over 5,000 hours of video was
seized from the public and the media. This amount of video would overwhelm the processing
capabilities of any forensic video lab and threatened to overburden the existing VPD infrastructure.
Members of IRIT and Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association (LEVA) joined
together. Forensic video analysts internationally were called upon to work on the project. The hours of
video were converted into one format ensuring investigative integrity. Video was then reviewed using
Avid Media Composer to “tag” events and suspects using multiple unique but standardized searchable
criteria to provide individualization. This enabled investigators to search for suspects similar to an
internet search engine.
While IRIT members were at the LEVA Lab, strategic timing saw the VPD infrastructure upgraded with
five new Avid work stations installed and three updated. This infrastructure provided investigators with
a means to search for a suspect who committed multiple offenses at different locations and to locate
video clips and photographs to be used for interviews, disclosure, and website outreach.
Currently, IRIT has “tagged” 67,000 unique entries and 15,000 criminal acts. The investigative team has
recommended over 400 criminal charges against 150 rioters with projections of charging nearly 300
rioters by the time the investigation concludes. The website has generated over 1.5 million visits and
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an additional 7,633 tips. The IRIT investigative approach has revolutionized how police will deal with
modern day investigations of this size. With the innovative and creative steps taken, this extraordinary
investigation will result in hundreds of rioters charged and each one held accountable for the crimes
they committed.
Current or Past Collaboration in Forensic Science
Winner: Law Enforcement & Emergency Services Video Association, International
(LEVA)
In 2006, LEVA opened the Digital Multimedia Evidence Analysis Training Facility (Lab) at the University
of Indianapolis and to support of their goals, LEVA formed the Forensic Video Analysis Response Team,
a group of serving law enforcement video analysts from throughout the world, who are trained to
operate in a collaborative investigative environment.
On June 15, 2011, game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals was played in Vancouver, Canada. Shortly after
the conclusion of the game, a riot ensured, with the crowd estimated at 150,000 in downtown
Vancouver. In response to the riots, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and the Integrated Riot
Investigation Team (IRIT), requested the assistance of LEVA’s response team to help analyze, and
process video evidence collected. With the proliferation of video recording devices, ranging from CCTV
systems to consumer camcorders and mobile phones, IRIT investigators collected over 5000 hours of
video evidence. It is estimated to be the most recorded criminal event in North America. It became clear
to VPD that they lacked the staff and the resources to examine and analyze this amount of visual
evidence.
The VPD reached out to LEVA with a request to activate its Forensic Video Analysis Response Team and
to use the Lab to begin processing the Digital Multimedia Evidence (DME). In September and October
of 2011, 37 LEVA analysts, representing 36 agencies from across the U.S., Canada and the United
Kingdom, joined 21 IRIT investigators at the Indianapolis Lab. Together they produced a searchable
database of suspect images and actions that now drives the on-going investigation in Vancouver.
For this case, LEVA developed a unique triage methodology to automate transcoding and to consolidate
DME into a shared storage environment powered by Avid Technology’s Media Composer. Analysts
effectively utilized the Avid Bin Architecture to develop and populate searchable forensic custom
columns during the data-infusion process, which visually links suspects to crimes. IRIT Commanders
leveraged the interoperable design of the Avid system, allowing multiple investigators to
simultaneously and instantly search through thousands of video clips as they tracked each suspect’s
actions and movements. The database currently contains over 65,000 tagged suspect links.
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This unprecedented effort has demonstrated how collaboration among agencies and supportive
partners like LEVA, can result in highly successful investigations that are dependent on video evidence.
The collaborative approach clearly demonstrates how coordinated and focused efforts to examine,
analyze, organize and utilize large amounts of video evidence can help solve major crimes. The creation
of a carefully designed database of image evidence has enabled IRIT to successfully manage and utilize
an immense amount of video evidence and has provided a roadmap for future large scale investigations.
Significant Investigative Value in a Major Crime
Winner: Philippine National Police
In October 2005, a man was shot and killed in Manila, Philippines. This seemingly random killing began
a shooting rampage that lasted over two years, spanning 10 cities and 7 provinces, and leaving 34
wounded and 38 killed. In all, there were a total of 33 incidents and investigators recovered hundreds
of pieces of ballistic evidence from the crime scenes. Initially, there was only one firearm involved: a
9mm Glock used in the Cavite shooting. This was the “Alpha Gun.” Later it would be joined by 11 other
guns.
In December 2005 three incidents occurred within a six-mile radius leaving five people killed. In July
2006, a man walked into a restaurant and shot and killed six people. In March 2008, firefighters arrived
at the burning apartment to find the body of model and actress, Scarlet Garcia, along with three others
who had all been shot and killed.
Investigators got their first break in April 2008 when three men broke into a house and sexually
assaulted a woman. The perpetrators then proceeded to the house across the street where they
sexually assaulted another woman. Neighbors, roused by the commotion, called the police. Two
suspects were arrested and a .45 and a 9mm pistol were recovered. The 9mm was identified as the one
used in the Garcia murders. The ‘3K killings’, as the murders came to be known, ended with the arrests
of two individuals; to this day they refuse to identify their cohorts. With no other leads available and no
witnesses, the 31 other cases went cold. 11 guns were unaccounted for; amongst them the “Alpha
Gun,” the one that started it all.
In addition to the estimated 1,500,000 licensed firearms, there are an around 300,000 “loose” or
undocumented guns in the Philippines. In 2008, the Crime Lab had an inventory of around 120,000
pieces of ballistic evidence. Although the Philippine National Police had hundreds of pieces of evidence
from the 3K cases, the method of comparison of ballistics data made it impossible to utilize the vital
information. In 2008, PNP implemented a strategy to better address gun crime; they required all new
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firearms be test-fired for future encoding before being sold, and declared a general firearms amnesty
wherein all loose firearms could be licensed, no questions asked, with a given period. All guns submitted
for amnesty were to be test-fired.
In March 2011, the PNP Firearms Identification Division (FAID) began encoding their inventory of
ballistic evidence into the newly-acquired Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS). By September
2011, the Crime Evidence Database (CED), had generated 500 confirmed “hits” out of only 15,000
database entries. Encouraged by these results, FAID encoded 3K evidence. Correlating against the CED,
IBIS found three more cases involving the 3K guns; bringing the total number of cases to 36, and victims
to 91.
In December 2011, IBIS flagged a “hit” for a 9mm Glock. A list of all the Glock’s “hits” was generated.
There were more than 90 in all—linked to 24 of the 36 cases—it was the “Alpha Gun”. The test-fire that
generated the hit was not part of the original 3K evidence set—it came from a registered gun. A check
of records led investigators to the owner of the gun that started it all. Police compiled data on the
person and known associates, and records have been cross-referenced, to find out if these individuals
own firearms and/or have been involved in past crimes.
The experience can be viewed as a kind of transformation of forensic science and technologies from a
reactive discipline into proactive tools for law enforcement. The projected comprehensive crime and
registration ballistic databases in the Philippines will serve both as valuable a investigative tool and
deterrent to firearms crime.
Innovation in Forensic Technology
Winner: The Boston Police Department
Automated ballistics imaging and analysis systems, such as the Forensic Technology’s (FT) Integrated
Ballistic Identification System (IBIS), have advanced gun law enforcement operations by allowing images
of gun crime evidence to be rapidly compared to a large inventory of evidence collected from other
crime scenes. Unfortunately, the 2D grayscale digital photography used by the original IBIS
equipment was often not refined enough to suggest potential matches between often highly damaged
bullets from separate crime scenes. Through the acquisition of three-dimensional measurements, the
BulletTrax-3D image acquisition technology improved the ability of law enforcement agencies to make
bullet matches through automated ballistic imaging and analysis.
The Boston Police Department (BPD) and FT collaborated on an evaluative study to assess the value
added by 3D bullet imaging technology to their gun law enforcement operations. BPD acquired and
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tested the IBIS BulletTrax-3D bullet imaging system and IBIS MatchPoint+ a comparative analysis system
for 2D and 3D images. A team of Harvard University and Northeastern University researchers, led by Dr.
Anthony A. Braga and Dr. Glenn L. Pierce, conducted the formal evaluation.
The National Research Council (2008) report suggested that the advancement of 3D ballistic imaging
technology could be helpful in improving match rates for crime bullets. The vast majority of ATF’s
National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) cold hits linked cartridge casings rather than
bullets. The IBIS 2D technology is not very effective in detecting potentially identical markings among
bullet images when compared to detecting potentially identical markings among less damaged and
distorted cartridge casings recovered from crime scenes.
During the study period, the same bullet evidence was entered into the BulletTrax-3D
and heritage IBIS 2D systems. BulletTrax-3D system made 9 hits that linked 3 homicide incidents,
including a triple homicide, 7 gun assault incidents, 4 illegal gun possession incidents, and one found
gun incident. All 9 cold bullet hits were regarded as noteworthy investigative leads and the significance
of each lead was determined by the investigative and intelligence information available from the linked
gun crimes. The detectives reported that two cold hits were directly associated with new arrests or the
issuance of arrest warrants.
The results of the research study found that the BulletTrax-3D imaging technology significantly
improved the ability of the BPD Ballistic Unit to make cold hit bullet matches. BulletTrax-3D technology
was associated with a 13% increase in the capacity of the Ballistic Unit to image submitted crime bullet
evidence, and that BulletTrax-3D made 9 cold bullet hits from 587 crime bullet images acquired while
the heritage 2D system made zero cold hits.
This experience revealed that the enhanced capacity of the BulletTrax-3D imaging technology
represents a dramatic improvement over the heritage 2D system in ballistic imaging and analysis.
The adoption of this technology nationwide would lead to the increased apprehension of repeat gun
criminals.
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