- Slug: CN2Go.
- Runtime: 8:29.
- Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)
(Music)
THIS IS YOUR CRONKITE NEWS 2GO BRIEFING.
(Bring up music briefly and duck below and out )
I’M DAMON FAIRALL
US World Cup (reader/Damon)
THE UNITED STATES MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM KICKED OFF THEIR WORLD CUP JOURNEY WITH A ONE-ONE DRAW AGAINST WALES ON MONDAY.
THE STATES STARTED OFF THE SCORING IN THE 36TH MINUTE WHEN TIMOTHY WEAH SLOTTED HIS SHOT PAST THE WELSH KEEPER.
THE U.S. HELD THE LEAD UNTIL THE 82ND MINUTE WHEN WALES CAPTAIN GARRETH BALE SCORED FROM A PENALTY KICK TO TIE.
THE RESULT IS A DISAPPOINTING ONE FOR THE U.S. WHO NOW FINDS THEMSELVES IN AN UPHILL BATTLE TO QUALIFY FOR THE KNOCKOUT STAGES.
NEXT UP, THE STATES WILL TAKE ON ENGLAND ON FRIDAY IN WHAT FIGURES TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT GAME OF THE GROUP.
Feature (wrap/Athena)
THE CRIME LAB AT THE PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT IS DEVELOPING A DATABASE OF SHOE PRINTS. AND, THEY’RE ENLISTING THE HELP OF FORENSIC SCIENCE STUDENTS AT GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY TO BUILD IT. AS CRONKITE NEWS’ ATHENA ANKRAH REPORTS, THE DATABASE COULD STREAMLINE A LENGTHY PART OF THE INVESTIGATION PROCESS.
Hum of AC unit in the Crime Lab fades in slowly
THE CRIME LAB AT THE PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT IS NOT LIKE WHAT YOU’D SEE IN A CRIME SHOW LIKE C-S-I OR BONES. SURE, THERE ARE LAB COATS AND MICROSCOPES, BUT NO ELECTRIC BLUE SCREENS BLINKING WITH GREEN DATA OR CRIME SCENE PHOTOS IN THE BACKGROUND. NO RED YARN, IMMEDIATE EPIPHANIES OR QUIPPY ONE-LINERS.
CSI: Miami sunglasses clip [:07]
“Her friend said she came down to drink mojitos and catch some sun.”
“Well it looks like… Something caught her.”
*Theme plays, fades down
Crime Lab AC hum pops up a bit
THE TRACE ANALYSIS SECTION OF THE REAL CRIME LAB, WHERE TINY PARTICLES OF EVIDENCE LIKE FIBERS AND HAIR IS ANALYZED, HONESTLY FEELS CLOSER TO A LIBRARY. ABOVE THE HIGH LAB COUNTERTOPS ARE SHELVES OF PAPERS, ALL FILED IN A “METHOD TO THE MADNESS” KIND OF WAY. SOME CHEMICAL SOLUTIONS ARE AROUND BUT NOT DISPLAYED LIKE YOU’D SEE ON TV. THEIR COLORS ARE NOT AS VIBRANT EITHER. THERE ARE BOOKSHELVES ALONG THE WALLS AND A COMPUTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM.
Ambi sound of papers shuffling, keyboard typing fades up
FORENSIC SCIENTIST KYLE MUELLER SITS HERE IN A WHITE LAB COAT, SCROLLING THROUGH AN ONLINE SHOE CATALOG. HE’S LOOKING AT THE BOTTOMS OF EACH SHOE, ONE BY ONE.
Keyboard typing, some mouse clicks here, Fades down
“So in the trace analysis section we analyze lots of different types of evidence. We analyzed gunshot residue kits, impression evidence, namely footwear and tire tracking person evidence. I also look at fibers and fire debris and miscellaneous unknowns. And, you know, other than analyzing casework. We write reports and sometimes are called to testify on our findings.”
BROWSING SOLES (THAT’S S-O-L-E-S) ONLINE IS BURDENSOME AND TIME CONSUMING, MUELLER SAYS.
“We sometimes get casework where I have an unknown impression and I need to try to determine what type of shoe could have made that impression. And I was spending countless hours looking on the Internet, trying to find these impressions…”
WHEN SHOE PRINTS ARE LEFT BEHIND AT CRIME SCENES, MUELLER SEARCHES THE WEB FOR THE EXACT MODEL AND SIZE SHOE THAT LEFT THE MARK. OFTEN TIMES HE LOOKS FOR A MATCH BASED ONLY ON WHAT THE PRINT LOOKS LIKE IN A PHOTO.
“If I’m lucky enough to maybe recognize part of the impression that I might start with just like a Nike search or a Reebok search, but if I’m kind of starting out from scratch, I’ll just go to like online shoe stores like Zappos or Google and just start searching for shoes, maybe just with like a random characteristic, like saying like a circular pattern on a shoe and then just looking through all the countless shoes to try to find a suitable comparison.”
“Sounds tedious.” (my voice)
“It is.”
THAT’S WHY ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO, MUELLER HAD THE IDEA TO CREATE A DATABASE OF SHOE SOLES TO SIMPLIFY THIS PART OF THE JOB. HE WANTED TO BUILD SOMETHING HE COULD SEARCH THROUGH BY PATTERNS OR BRAND. BUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT WOULD ENTAIL A LOT OF TRIPS TO SHOE STORES TO TAKE PHOTOS OF HUNDREDS OF SOLES. PLUS, NEW SHOES ARE CONSTANTLY COMING OUT, SO IT WOULD NEED TO BE UPDATED FREQUENTLY.
“I don’t have the resources here to go out, you know, multiple times and look for or take pictures of these shoes. So I reached out to GCU because I did have some contacts there, and we started this collaboration to have the students go out and actually start collecting this information for me.”
“So the whole point was to decrease the turnaround time and get this information back out to the investigator as soon as possible, because they might need this information if they’re doing a search warrant and looking for the suspect.”
Crime Lab ambi fades down
WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC DISRUPTED EVERYTHING IN EARLY 2020, THE DATABASE PROJECT WAS PUT ON PAUSE. DURING THAT TIME THEY COULD NOT GO OUT TO THE STORES TO TAKE PICTURES OF SHOES, ALL THEY COULD DO WAS SHAPE THE PROCEDURE, IRONING OUT ANY KINKS IN THE PROCESS OF DATA COLLECTION. THIS IS WHEN THEY DECIDED WHAT CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD BE SEARCHABLE IN THE DATABASE. ARE THERE WAVY LINES OR ZIGZAGS? BRICK OR WEBBING PATTERNS? WHAT BRAND IS THE SHOE?
NOW, IN 2022, FORENSIC SCIENCE STUDENTS AT GCU ARE FINALLY ABLE TO GET THE BALL ROLLING ON DATA COLLECTION FOR THE PROJECT. IN THIS CASE, THAT MEANS GOING FROM STORE TO STORE AND TAKING PHOTOS OF HUNDREDS OF SHOE SOLES ACROSS THE VALLEY.
GCU ambi fades up
LEAH WEBB IS AN INSTRUCTOR AT GCU. SHE OVERSEES THE STUDENTS AS THEY DEVELOP THE DATABASE. SHE SAYS SEEING THE PROJECT GET OFF THE GROUND WAS GRATIFYING.
“I think that it’s exciting to see everything being real, like it’s finally coming to fruition because they have been working on this project for a long time. COVID really set us back. Because all of the stores shut down. So they really worked on the foundation for a while and now they’re actually able to go out to the shoe stores, take the photographs, and then we can finally– we just met with somebody to actually create the database. So it’s all coming together.
FOR STUDENTS, THE PROJECT GIVES THEM A CHANCE TO SEE WHAT FORENSIC SCIENCE IS REALLY LIKE. NO CSI.
“I’m Megan Martinez. I’m a junior and I’m a forensic science major…”
MARTINEZ SAYS SHE WANTS TO BE A CRIME SCENE PROCESSOR, SO WHEN SHE HEARD ABOUT THIS PROJECT, SHE WAS INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT HOW CRIME SCENES ARE EVALUATED.
“And I was like, Oh, you know, like, I want to get more experience in the sense that’s why I wanted to say yes, only for the fact that, like, I want to be a crime scene processor. So I’m going to see shoe impressions all the time in my future career. And I just want to get more knowledge for that.”
SHE SAYS THE DATA COLLECTION PROCESS IS NOT JUST TAKING PHOTOS AT THE STORE.
“We choose the best photos that we took at the stores… And we just basically give a basic description that’s using universal language to help just narrow down for the detectives or police officers… We document about 10 to 12 shoes an hour to an hour and a half… We come back and if, let’s say, a new tread pattern that’s not already in our glossary, we add to it and we kind of just come up with a basic definition that everyone would understand and it’s not too complicated.”
SENIOR LAUREN DEJONG (DEE-YOUNG) SAYS WORKING ON THE DATABASE PRESENTED SOME UNEXPECTED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES.
“As you can imagine, there’s like a million different shapes and different ways they put them on the shoe. So figuring out a really concise and practical way to make a glossary that can be used to actually search a shoe and find that print, that’s been one of the big challenges.”
INSTRUCTOR LEAH WEBB SAYS THEY’VE ALREADY ENLISTED THE HELP OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT TO CREATE THE ACTUAL SOFTWARE.
“So the plan for the database is kind of similar to any clothing or shoes website where it’s a filter-able search engine. All of these patterns that we have for the glossary will be there and then they can kind of check mark, ‘okay, I have this in my impression,’ and then that will help narrow down the search for the specific shoe that you’re looking for.”
WEBB SAYS SHE HOPES THE FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND PROJECT GROWS INTO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR SCIENTISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
“Hopefully one day it can be like a national database that others can contribute to and we can just make it really large and amplify it. For police departments to be able to work with it and have this information because databases are so helpful in forensic science.”
BACK AT THE CRIME LAB, MUELLER SAYS HE DOESN’T EXPECT THE DATABASE TO EVER REALLY BE “FINISHED.”
“You know, quite honestly, I don’t know that there is going to be an actual complete date because, you know, shoes are changing all the time. There’s new shoes being produced, there’s new outsole designs being produced. So I see this as a project that just keeps growing and growing and growing.”
AND THE COLLABORATION WITH GCU STUDENTS, HE SAYS, HAS BEEN CRITICAL.
“I have to say it’s been great working with the students because they’ve really taken my idea and taken it to another level. My idea was just to have them go out with a camera and just go take pictures of shoes. But they’ve created an SOP. So a standard operating procedure… They’ve ordered equipment. They’ve kind of put it all together.”
SHOE PRINTS ARE SOME OF THE MOST ABUNDANT FORMS OF EVIDENCE AT CRIME SCENES, AND CAN EVEN BE AS SPECIFIC AS A FINGERPRINT. THE FEW SHOE PRINT DATABASES THAT DO EXIST ARE NOT FREELY ACCESSIBLE, AND OFTEN DON’T HAVE THE SAME TYPES OF SHOES THAT ARE COMMON OR MANUFACTURED IN OUR REGION. IF IT GOES NATIONAL LIKE WEBB AND MUELLER HOPE, THE DATABASE COULD HELP EXPEDITE THE PROCESS OF UNTANGLING CRIME SCENES.
ATHENA ANKRAH, CRONKITE NEWS.
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WE HAD HELP TODAY FROM ATHENA ANKRAH . (list everyone who contributed for the show including the producer credit as well)
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YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STORIES YOU HEARD IN TODAY’S NEWS UPDATE, BY GOING TO CRONKITENEWS-DOT-AZPBS-DOT-ORG.
THAT’S ALL FOR YOUR CRONKITE NEWS 2 GO. I’M .
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