Bodies of evidence

It could be any high street in England – a Domino’s, a bar, offices, some parked cars. But look closer. There’s a corpse on the floor of the travel agents, bloodstains decorate the walls and bullet holes pepper the pizza parlour. An average day on this road would cause County Durham’s homicide and burglary statistics to skyrocket. If any of it were real, that is.

Welcome to the National Policing Improvement Agency Forensic Centre. Each year some 900 students enter training at Harperley Hall in Crook. They come from police forces across the country as well as abroad to learn a range of forensic techniques. Courses cover everything from fingerprinting to blood pattern analysis, footwear identification to crime scene management.

Daily operations take place in classrooms and a pair of semi-detached houses that are burgled routinely. But the focus of the 10.5-acre site is the state-of-the-art practical training block, which centres around the purpose-built street. “We haven’t got a name for it but we’re open to suggestions,” says Keith Fryer, head of the centre. “Murder Mile, the Street of Shame…”

Two years ago, a £13m NPIA investment provided the site with these new facilities. “We’ve been able to do much more scenario-based training,” says Duncan Brown, one of the trainers. “Traditionally everyone gets a window, and they fingerprint the window. Now we can put that window in context and try to replicate what they’ll get back out in the real world.” Pause. “Of course, you get a lot stranger things happening out there than we can ever set up in here.”

These police officers will be first on the scene of homicides, sexual assaults and robberies. While they normally refer more detailed analysis to specialists, what they pick up in those first few hours can be vital to the success of the case. “If it goes wrong at the scene, then you can’t recover it,” says Fryer.

Techniques are changing all the time. “Technology has been the major shift,” says Mike Thompson, head of fingerprinting. During 38 years in the field, he has seen national fingerprinting databases revolutionise his work. Offenders can now be tracked down by a stray palmprint. CSIs will soon be able to use a briefcase-size kit to start DNA profiling at the scene. Despite these changes, the trainers believe in going back to basics. “What we’re trying to do is get them to think about not just what they’re doing but why they’re doing it,” says Brown. So, instruction in the viscosity of blood could provide clues into why it landed and dried in a certain way. Is it an impact spatter from being hit in the face or cast-off staining from a weapon?

Students put theory in action. For Kirsty Potter, a forensic biologist who teaches blood pattern analysis, a typical day might start with a lump of belly pork and a supply of sterile horse blood down in the high street’s mortuary (which doubles as an analysis room, complete with hose-downable walls). “We will hold the meat at head height and punch it. It creates exactly the same patterns as if someone has received a punch to the face.”

Those attending these courses are often surprised by the lack of blood in stabbings or fights. Challenging easy assumptions and knowing when to ask for help is central to the training. One scenario presents students with a half-naked woman dead in the woods with a head injury. Most immediately assume it’s a rape/murder. In fact it could be the result of a drunken night out in which a woman goes to urinate, trips, bangs her head and then, confused, removes her clothes (as hypothermia sufferers sometimes do). “I am happy when they walk out of my training sessions knowing less than they thought they did when they walked in,” says Potter.

These days every armchair amateur claims a working knowledge of forensics. Hit TV shows such as CSI have been both a blessing and a curse for trainers. “They raise expectations to a level beyond reality,” says Fryer. “But it was good to raise the profile. Forensic science is really now in the public eye ... People are less likely to accept evidence without it.” Back out on the unnamed street, another class are working to make sure they can provide it.