Police now have a vehicle where they can lift fingerprints from evidence. Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter Drew Wilder explains.
Fairfax County police can potentially identify murder suspects much quicker with a new mobile forensics lab.
Maj. Christian Quinn said the idea to build the mobile lab started at a crime scene in 2017.
A Fairfax teenager was found dead in Nokesville, and detectives were working the scene in the middle of a muddy soybean field in the blazing heat. Carrying evidence out of the field could have potentially damaged evidence, so detectives wanted to find a way to bring the lab to the evidence.
Detective William Szuminski said they started with just the chassis of a vehicle and, piece-by-piece, they installed equipment that would help them uncover details of a crime.
The vehicle includes a super glue chamber where detectives put evidence. Glue fumes adhere to an object to lock fingerprints in place.
Chemicals are used to make the print visible. Then it’s taken to a photography station to be scanned and run through a database.
Szuminski said they could identify a suspect hours or even days quicker than they normally would have with this vehicle.
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Fairfax County police said the vehicle was paid for with money it already had and forensics equipment was paid for with seized property funds. No additional taxpayer money was used.
