Today is June 8th at 6:30PM. We have 13 attenders at Monroe Village and another 8 on Zoom.
Note: This meeting is being recorded. If anyone is having trouble hearing, I am recording this entire program. I can forward that report to you, so nobody misses anything.
Our speaker tonight is Josh Von Haugg from the MPD Forensics Lab. 2-PAC has invited the MPD Forensics Lab to come in several times over the years. Each time, there’s been something new for us to learn. Josh, I’d like you to take over from here.
Josh Von Haugg: I work with the MPD Forensic Services Division. We’re also called the Crime Lab. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation from Hilbert College, in New York. I was hired by MPD in Oct. 2017, so I’ve been here for about nine years now.
I’m a member of the IAI, International Association for Identification, and Vice President of the MN Division of the IAI, which focuses on local forensic issues. We have an annual educational conference for forensic professionals and law enforcement in Minnesota.
I’m also a Certified Crime Scene Investigator. That certification comes through the IAI. After you have a certain number of course credit hours, external and internal training, you also have training in the crime lab. At the end of that period you must pass a test to be certified. You must be recertified every 5 years.
The MPD Crime Lab is in the Public Service Building, 505 South 4th Ave., on the 9th floor of a new all-glass building. Our up-to-date Crime Lab helps deliver the best forensic services to the city that we can.
Lab Management includes a Crime Lab Director, a Lab Manager, and a Quality Manager who ensures that our lab is adhering to the quality assurance standards established by ANAB (ANSI National Accreditation Board).
Staff includes 29 civilian forensic scientists working in the lab, including 7 who are in training right now. We also have 2 sworn Police Officers and 2 support staff.
Crime Lab has 6 Sectors:
Video Forensics – analyzing any video from businesses, private residences (like ring cameras or Google Nest), safe zone cameras which are on light poles or on little trailers. There may be videos from squad cars videos, cell phones, iPads and more.
Their goal is to enhance any video to get an image that may show suspects or victims. The videos can also capture data for clothing descriptions or height-weight comparisons. If the team can analyze a video very quickly (color or graphics on a suspect’s clothing) and get that info to officers on a street, the officers might spot suspects who are still in the area.
Computer Forensics is a team of two Sworn Officers who are in charge of writing their own search warrants. Only Officers are able to write a warrant. They are assisted by a civilian forensic scientist who helps write those warrants. They examine any digital media that might prove or disprove evidence of illegal activity. They look at computer hard drives, USB drives or SD cards you might find in a camera. They look at CDs, and even floppy discs.
This team is looking for communications from cell phones, like call logs, text messages, messaging apps, and internet history, try to see what suspects are looking up, like photos, videos, internet history.
They have a plug-in device that makes digital copies of everything on that phone, leaving the original intact, so there are no issues with chain of custody or tampering with evidence.
The Forensic Garage That is vehicle processing — cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs and more. The vehicles are a mini crime scene. The teams are looking for anything that a crime scene investigator is going to look at, but their work is limited to the vehicle. So they’re looking for latent prints, DNA, maybe hidden compartments (for drugs, guns or similar).
They can examine a vehicle for mechanical problems, if someone says that their vehicle wasn’t operating properly before they got into an accident or hit someone, our people might be able to determine if there was a mechanical problem or not.
VIN switches: if a vehicle is stolen the thieves [chop shop] often take out different vehicle parts, and sell those parts. We can check the VIN number on those cars and see if those parts belong to that car itself, or if those parts belong to a different vehicle.
Bullet trajectories: If a vehicle has many different bullet holes, Forensics can also determine bullet trajectory, by slipping thin plastic rods into bullet holes to try to determine the general direction that bullets may have been fired from. This can help investigators at a scene determine where a suspect was standing and where the vehicle was at a crime scene.
ABIS stands for the Automated Biometric Identification System. It used to be called AFIS which stood for Automated Fingerprint Identification System. With the emerging biometric technology of facial recognition and eye scans, the name covers it all now, so now biometrics, not just fingerprints.
ABIS is a computer system that compares “points” on a captured fingerprint from a crime scene, with potential matches in the computer database. Fingerprints on file may have been taken when a person applied for a job, got arrested, or whatever, so it’s in the database. That latent fingerprint from a crime scene will be compared with prints in the database. It’s not like on TV, where they scan a print and three seconds later all of a sudden, boom, it’s a 100% match. What this system does give us is potential matches. The computer runs its algorithm, and says, “I think your fingerprint matches these 10 people.” Then one of the examiners has to look at all 10 of those, to really determine if they think it’s a match or not, and do the final determination.
Firearms and Tool Marks This team examines any firearms or potential tool marks that are needed for an investigation. [Refers to photos on his tape]
They compare the different marks found on a bullet casing that was left behind at a crime scene. They can do proximity and function testing.
Proximity is trying to determine how far someone may have been away from another person or object when they fired the gun.
Function testing is to determine if that gun was functioning as it should. If someone says, “The gun went off and I didn’t touch it at all.” The team can try to determine if that gun was functioning properly, and prove or disprove that person’s statement.
The team can also restore “obliterated serial numbers. [more photos] One photo looks like nothing’s there, but on the other photo you can see numbers. The team uses chemicals that take off the top layer of the metal and still reveal the serial number on the base metal of that gun. When criminals think they’re scratching the serial number off, they aren’t. When the guns are manufactured, the stamp for the serial number is just pressed into the metal so hard, and with such force and such heat, that you’re never really going to fully get rid of it.
They also utilize IBIS (International Ballistic Identification System) operated by the ATF, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This is a computer database for firearms like the fingerprint database. IBIS allows for the digital imaging of bullets and casings recovered from crime scenes, so they can be analyzed and compared against a comprehensive database. NIBIN (National Integrated Ballistic Information Network) links ballistic evidence across different cities and jurisdictions to connect separate crime scenes and identify the same weapon being used in multiple crimes.
For firearms, the two main components are the bullets and the casings. Firearms Unit can examine recovered bullets to determine if they came from a certain gun or not. Bullets may break but if there is an intact bullet, it may have info on it. The other part is the casing. In some guns, when the bullet comes out of the barrel, the casings pop out of the gun –they’re what’s left behind at a crime scene. When we’re called to a shooting scene, we collect them and try to figure out if they came from a certain gun.
FIELD OPERATIONS: crime scene documentation and processing. This team goes out to the incident site, collects evidence and brings it back to the lab for processing.
This is what I do. We’re a 24-7 unit, so we have three shifts: morning, mid, and night watch. We have 22 forensic scientists between all three of those shifts, including supervisors.
We respond to crime scenes. We do the documentation — photos, videos, a sketch of the crime scene and the processing — identifying evidence. Once we’ve mapped those pieces of evidence, we collect them and bring them back to the lab. Then we process those to get any more evidence they might hold, like fingerprints for comparisons.
If we collect a fingerprint from a crime scene, like a burglary in your house, we’ll come to your house and process for fingerprints. If we find one, I’ll be trying to determine who they belong to. If we can do that, an investigator will reach out to the homeowner to see if they can connect that person to the crime scene.
We’ll also fingerprint homicide victims and others at the morgue, so we have their fingerprints on file in case we ever need to compare them. If juveniles get arrested, sometimes we’ll process their fingerprints as well, so then they can be identified later on. If I get a print at a crime scene, it may have come from a juvenile who was previously arrested.
Morgue identification. If the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office needs some help identifying a body, we’ll use fingerprints to discover who that person is. By law, theMedical Examiner must have a scientific identification before they can release any names, and one of those ways is fingerprint ID. Another way is DNA ID, but that takes longer.
Work Orders. This means if we didn’t go out to a crime scene, but an officer went out and didn’t find much evidence or maybe we were at another call, the officer might collect what they spotted and bring it in for the lab. We’ll examine it when it’s back in the lab.
We also testify in court as expert witnesses, which goes much like you see on court TV. I go to court two or three times a year, depending on how busy the year has been and what charges the city has filed against people. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s enough to keep you up to pace with what’s going on in the courts and the requirements that they might need:
Scenes we process
Robberies, criminal sexual conducts, burglaries, dead bodies (suicide, suspicious deaths or homicides), carjackings, typically any type of crime. We assist on search warrants.
At a Crime Scene The first thing is we’ll ask, “What’s the story?” Usually the officers on scene have all the information we need, but if witnesses or victims are there, we’ll ask them because they might have information they forgot to tell the officers, or maybe it’s something the officer didn’t think to ask.
Then we’ll do a scene walkthrough with the officer and have them show us evidence they’ve got. For a burglary:
- Where did they enter the house?
- Where did they exit?
- What areas were disturbed?
Then we search for any more evidence we can find.Typically we will place evidence markers — those little numbered yellow placards you’ll see on the news. We’re just marking different pieces so we can keep track of it all, especially if the evidence is all the same. If you have different casings, there might be 20 of them, and they all look the same, but we need to be able to tell them all apart.
Documentation. We first photograph the big area, showing the entire crime scene or a large area of what we see. Next we move into mid-range, using a landmark like a sewer grate to show some evidence of location to that grate. After that, we go back and do close-ups of all our specific pieces of evidence to show what each item is.
For homicides and any type of critical incident in the city, we’ll do a crime scene video, which allows the jury to get a sense of what it was like when we were there. Sometimes from still photos, you can’t tell it’s snowing out. When you take a video, if you can show snow that could hide a casing we didn’t find until later. It’s good to show environmental conditions.
For a homicide or critical incident, we’ll do a computer assisted crime scene sketch, based on accurate measurements for good perspective.
In general we try to collect DNA samples first, but especially for outdoor scenes. If someone took a drink from a bottle or can, we’d want that.
When a visual search has been done, we’ll sometimes go back with an ALS or an alternate light source which is like a UV light but with other colors also. THose lights are great for finding hairs and fibers at a crime scene that could be important. We might also use a metal detector for finding any casings that were left outside.
Storing Evidence: We don’t use plastic bags because plastic can’t inhibit mold or cross-contamination of DNA. We use paper, paper bags, large paper bags, giant leaf bag size if we have large pieces of evidence.The only times we might use plastic is if there’s potential fentanyl. We want to make sure that we don’t breathe that in.
Finishing up: Back at the lab, we document the chain of custody — what we collected and where it went every time it was moved. What additional processing happened, by whom. Finally, we inventory the evidence with the Property and Evidence Unit. They store it in a big warehouse until an investigator requests it gets sent to the BCA for further testing if possible.
Any Questions?
Question: Is the evidence garage close to the Public Service Center where your lab is?
Von Haugg: Our Forensic Garage is actually within the city of Minneapolis impound lot. It’s a separate building that has four garage bays to hold different vehicles. We have different fenced-in areas for other vehicles.
Question: How long do you have to keep evidence?
Von Haugg: I don’t know exactly for every crime. Every crime has a different retention period. I believe homicides are indefinitely until they are solved and adjudicated. They have cases from, like the 1930s, I believe. So they have a lot of evidence, old evidence. But for some other cases, sometimes it’s only three years. It depends on state law.
Question: My last question is how is staffing going in your department, especially since it’s a 24/7 seven operation. Do you have enough people?
Von Haugg: I guess that would depend on who you ask. We have people in training. The training period for us is two years to go from having your work checked all the time to being an independent examiner. But once they’re fully through it’s usually smooth sailing.
I wouldn’t say we’re not understaffed by any means. That’s my opinion. It really just depends on the workload of the city. What’s the day going to bring? How busy are we going to be? But the work is rewarding if that helps.
Question:I was wondering about cold cases, if there are just cold cases.
Von Haugg: I don’t have much information on cold cases. I know that if an investigator is still working on a case, depending on the situation, they can ask us to re-examine some types of evidence. We don’t do it too often, but it can happen.
Question: Ghost guns. Are they easy to detect?
Von Haugg: I won’t speak too much about it because that’s the Firearms Unit. I know they do make things more difficult because they don’t have information like a serial numbers, make, or model to track. But again, there is that NIBIN database. If a gun was used and fired at a scene, AND if they have that gun in hand and they have evidence, they might be able to link them together. That database can be used to show if that [ghost] gun was involved in another crime as well.
Question: When an officer is handing out a ticket, like a speeding ticket, and if you’re going to fight it, it has to be that particular officer who shows up in court. So I’m wondering, how does that work as far as the crime lab?
Von Haugg: Yes, if we testify to something we collected. When we write reports, the names of everyone that was there are on that report. Generally, we’ll specify what specific person photographed, what specific person did the sketch, what specific person collected the evidence. If the case goes to trial, they’d subpoena everyone that’s attached to it. Then the attorney would figure out who needs to testify. Generally, if you’re collecting, you’re going to be the one testifying about collecting that evidence.
Question: Mpls. has extensive services. Do you do work for smaller suburbs, or do they rely on the state?
Von Haugg: The Minneapolis Crime Lab just does the city of Minneapolis. Other cities in Hennepin County generally rely on the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. They also have a forensic laboratory as well. They can also call in the BCA, just as we can.
Quast: Thank you, Josh!
If people have more questions, please send them to me, and I will forward them to Josh, who has agreed to work for us even longer.
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 