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TreadMark™ Forensic Analytical System
An Overview
The basic idea of TreadMark™ was to recover shoe marks from crime scenes and be able to compare them with a database consisting of shoe impressions taken from suspects in custody and transmit that information to the appropriate body.
Little point was seen in recording every shoe pattern from every manufacturer as they are constantly changing and much depended on the area or Country where the shoes were made or sold. CSI saw little value in having an English footwear database in India or China for example. There are a number of manufacturers who are not widely known and it may be very difficult to identify patterns especially of imitations.
The Custody database therefore would be built up over a period of time and consist of footwear being used by the criminal fraternity in the area where the crime is being committed.
It was felt initially that by identifying particular damage points in the shoe impression a simple way could be found to positively identify individuals at crime scenes. However testing proved that this method was found to be somewhat impractical.
So what does TreadMark™ do?
There is one database. Entries are made either from custody suites where a Suspects’ footwear is scanned in. Shoe marks found at crime scenes can also be entered in various ways, ie. scanning or photography. This can be done by any person authorised and trained to do so.
Impressions are examined, identified and given a descriptor number. These can be co-ordinated with the references given by other agencies too i.e. FSS, NPIA. These are then grouped together. An examiner can look at the images and by use of various tools including, overlaying, contrast, and colour can decide whether impressions found at various scenes can be correlated into a crime series.
There is a means of ‘parking’ marks which have little or no evidential value at the time.
All images are archived. There is a comprehensive audit trail to allow supervisors to trace the actions by operators and any alteration to the image is also recorded.
This information is freely available by networking between the Agencies concerned and has the ability to be sent anywhere in the world. Agencies using TreadMark™ are able (with appropriate permissions) to transmit images and information to any other user. As an example, it is known that criminals from the northeast of the UK often travel south for holidays and of course they are not averse to committing crime when away from home. Using TreadMark™ will allow any Force affected to check with each other such criminal activity.
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