Show CIO The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday February 18 2004 EMgiftaiD By Brian Bergsteln AP Technology Writer Still some defense attorneys learned a lesson: Get more aggressive about chal- When Victor Reyes went on trial for murder last year the technology that fingered him was supposed to be a star wit- lenging digitally generated evidence “Now whenever you hear the word enhancement an antenna goes up” said Hilliard Moldof a Florida defense attorney who is ques-- 1 tioning digitally enhanced fingerprints in two cases Or in the words of Mary DeFusco head of training for the Philadelphia public defender's office: “I thought digital was better but apparently it’s not We’re definitely going to take a look at it" As more police departments abandon chemically processed film in fav6r of digital photography the technology could be confounding for the justice system Film images are subject to darkroom tricks but because digital pictures are merely bits of data manip- ulating them is much easier And although willful evidence manipulation is rare lt forensic specialists a poorly trained examiner using computer enhancement programs can unwittingly introduce errors ness Police in Florida had used software known as More Hits to determine that a smudged handprint they had found on duct tape wrapped around a body — but originally could- n't decipher — implicated Reyes in the 1996 killing The judge let prosecutors introduce More Hits’ digital enhancement But the defense called it “junk science” and ' had an art professor testify that the process resembled ' how Adobe Photoshop can be illusused to make trick-photrations Reyes was acquitted Jurors said they based their decision mainlyon the notion that the print didn’t prove Reyes was the killer — not on the legitimacy of More Hits’ method And a Florida appeals court later ruled that More Hits’ technology — used by 215 US police departments — is acceptable to poses ps&ic® Bssiules pMdDgraijsDuy acknowl-edgetha- “What you can do iq a darkroom is 2 percent of what Photoshop is capable of doing” said Larr Meyer former head of photography for State Farm Insurance Co Courts have consistently allowed digital photographs and enhancement techniques But some observers say such methods should endure a more thorough examination as have technologies such as DNA analysis “There have been relatively few challenges to the use of ' digital technology as evidence ' and in most of them the courts have looked at them in a fairly superficial way” said Edwin Imwinkelried an evidence expert at the University of Califomia-Davi- s law school ' Concemsabout the impeachability of digital photographs are one reason many police departments have been hesitant to ditch film for crime ' scene photographs and foren- sic analysis In fact some people who train law enforcement agencies in photography estimate that only 25 to 30 percent of US police departments have gone digital — despite the huge cost benefits of no longer having to buy film and the ease with which digital pictures ‘can be captured and disseminated The police department in ' Santa Clara Calif bought 30 ' digital cameras recently but is holding off on giving them to detectives and technicians until the department specifies ways to lock away the original photos as evidence “so there can be no question that any- ' thing was changed” said Sharon Hoehn an analyst for the department George Pearl who runs a e evidence service in Atlanta and is a past president of the Evidence Photographers International Council ' sticks with film partly because The digital image' of a latent finger print from a crime scene is viewed on a computer screen at the police forensics lab jn Salem Ore Ha 9 AOl ' civil-cas- AP photo " AP Photo Police latent print examiner Hector Hernandez views a digital image of in Salem Ore a finger print on a soda pop can he doesn't want to explain on gent procedures digital photos should not be problematic For one thing blurriness or other errors in'digital imaging are nowhere near severe enough to “fool an examiner into misidentifying a fingerprint’’ said George Reis a crime scene investigator in Newport Beach Calif where police began converting to digital a decade ago saving more than $6000 a month in Polaroid costs Reis helps other police agencies make the digital conversion through a business he runs Imaging Forensics In Oregon State Police’s forensic laboratory which has been all digital for about five years original pictures of fiA- gerprints and other evidence are encrypted so they can’t be changed and burned onto a CD giving the lab the equivalent of a film negative to reference later at the police forensics lab a witness stand if he used a computer to adjust the contrast and other settings of a digital image “Even if it was honest adjustments” Pearl said “Juries they’re all skeptical and they’re all sitting there waiting to jump on something that’s wrong” Some lawenforcement officials also worry about the limitations that still plague digital photography Digital pictures can’t be blown up as clearly for courtroom displays as well as film photos Or the compression needed to store a dig- ital file on disk can make the image blurry or blocky poten- tially obscuring key details “Digital imaging for the most part has a long way to go to meet the quality of film” 200-spee- Vorder-Brueg- ge top-not- ch ' said Richard an FBI forensic expert who chaired a panel that wrote Vorder-Brueg- guidelines for law enforcement use of digital imaging For example he said a negd ative shot on traditional film can produce the equivalent of 18 megapixels of resolution Only highly specialized expensive digital cameras approach that now most that consumers buy are less than 5 megapixels concedes that a photographer with plenty of time “could do an outstanding job” with a camera But such skills are in short supply in many police departments especially smaller ones Consequently he believes cops should stay with filnl for capturing close-u- p details of footprints and tire tracks Many people in law ’s enforcement believe assesments are too conservative They say that with proper training and strin ge Vorder-Bruegge- DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE THIS UNIQUE t dlFt TO A FRIEND OR A LOVED ONE WITH OVER “ - '' 4 VALLEY WHAT IT JS TODAY j PofluHonJev&'ort®J " a Okay to bum THE UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS BOOK WERE: SUBMITTED BY THE HERALD JOURNAL READERS AND TELLAN INTERESTING PICTORIAL HISTORY OF CacheValleyskies (Let's keep it that way) ji i THE VALLEY: ' " " tba book it pricad jut right at $2995 and' convaniandy avoilabla at flit- Harold Journal HoriNigi and Tha Bool labia Our dapping cod only $3395 tha book i"aha haw avaiiobii anfinrat bjnanHcom Cdt Angia at Thp J OUmIQI Lr U mi ODnipOT information Heelth Pspitmsnt more ideas on what you can doto L E ’A N A?I R 6 !b E visit pur websitei at wwwcleanairutahgov ''V: For r C‘ H Sfxmsontd by the Utah Department ' : 245 HISTOR- ICAL PHOTOS OF THE PEOPLE WHO MADE CACHE Vj of Environmental Quality & the Bear River Health Department ' at 792-729- 2 ' |