Another week has passed and crime still marches on. However, it’s time for us to sign 10-7 ( out of service), pack the car, and head out of town for a little R&R. Our Weekend Road Trip this week takes us to Washington state in the mountains overlooking the San Juan Islands. Take a deep breath. The hike up and over to the water is not for the weak. Enjoy the view.
See you at Monday morning muster for part two of The Morgue.
Death investigations are conducted by both the police and medical examiners or coroners. Each jurisdiction determines whether or not they have a coroner or medical examiner. A coroner is an elected official and may or may not be a medical doctor. A medical examiner is a medical doctor that has been hired by a city or county to conduct autopsies and investigate the cause of suspicious deaths.
The police are in charge of all murder scenes, but medical examiners and coroners are in charge of the body. Medical examiners and coroners do not interrogate suspects and detectives do not examine bodies.
Bodies are placed in body bags and delivered to the morgue in specially equipped vehicles.
Bodies are placed on gurneys and rolled onto scales where they’re weighed.
After weighing, the body is placed inside a cold room until autopsy. Black or dark gray, leak-resistant body bags are used pre-autopsy. The paper bag resting on the body of the murder victim at the top of the photo contains the victim’s personal belongings.
Cold rooms also store amputated body parts. The gray trays on the right contain severed limbs. White, paper-like body bags, like the one lying on the gurney in the rear of the cold room above, are used post-autopsy for bodies waiting to be transported to funeral homes.
Don’t forget to stop by on Saturday and Sunday for The Weekend Road Trip
Patrol cars serve many purposes. Obviously, they’re an officer’s means of transportation, but they’re also used as mobile offices, equipment haulers, cover during gun battles, barricades, emergency warning devices, temporary jails, cafeterias, and communication centers.
Police cars aren’t all that much different than the cars driven by civilians. They do have heavier suspensions, and they’re fitted with larger alternators because of the extra electricity that’s need to power all the radios, lights and sirens. Heavy-duty brakes are installed on patrol cars since quick, hard braking is often required during pursuit driving. Some police cars have coolers on the transmission lines. Other than that, they’re basically equipped the same as any other automobile.
Patrol cars are meant to be highly visible. They’re usually marked with the department’s reflective logo and, they’re equipped with some sort of emergency lighting system. Some departments use rotating halogen lights while others prefer flashing strobes. Many agencies use a combination of both. Each jurisdiction has its own rules regarding light color – usually red, blue or a combination of both.
Light bars are positioned on the top of a police car and stretch from one side to the other. They’re held in place by a bracket attached to the inside of the upper door frames. A hole is drilled into the car top creating a passage for light’s wiring harness. The hole is waterproofed using a rubber gromett and silicone sealant.
Each light bar is equipped with colored warning lights and spotlights aimed to the front, rear and sides. The side spotlights are called alley lights. Front-facing spot lights are called take-down lights because they’re often used during high-risk traffic stops – taking down a suspect.
Low profile light bar equipped with flashing strobe lights. It’s called a low profile light bar because it sits low and tight to the car roof. People often mistake it for a luggage rack. The deception sometimes allows the police car to approach without being detected as easily as a car with a taller light bar.
Alley light
Most patrol cars utilize a center console that houses radio equipment, laptop computer, light switches, siren switches, portable radio charger, remote radar controls, and a public address system.
Equipment in the console above starting at the top:
PA system
Department radio capable of muti-jurisdictional communication
Lights and siren control panel
Radar unit
Remote radar control
Top right – personal police scanner for monitoring fire and rescue
The rear seating area of a patrol car serves as a mini-jail cell. The window and door locks and controls are disabled to prevent escape. Heavy metal and plexiglass screens divide the front and rear compartments. The rear seat is made from hard plastic. This allows for easy cleaning (Drunks tend to make a big mess. Yes, patrol officers are often required to clean their own cars).
Rear compartment of a patrol car.
Shotguns are mounted in the front compartment of patrol cars. Some departments prefer an upright mount near the dashboard. Others prefer a mount behind the driver’s head. Both are kept locked at all times. To unlock the shotgun, officers press a concealed button in or near the center console area.
Shotgun mount.
I’ve included this photograph as a quiz. Can anyone identify the round, white object? Hint…there’s at least one in almost all police cars.
In the days before semi-automatics took center stage in the world of law enforcement, police officers carried revolvers as their weapons of choice. Cowboys called them six-shooters, and gun buffs often refer to them as wheel guns. Shooting enthusiasts love them. Why, then, did police officers make the switch? The answer is simple. Law enforcement officers were being outgunned by semi-automatic-toting bad guys.
Revolvers are capable of firing only six rounds of ammunition. Semi-automatics can pop off fifteen or sixteen rounds as fast as a shooter can pull the trigger. During a gun battle, officers had to reload two or three times before the crook emptied his first magazine.
Reloading a revolver has always been a problem, especially when the officer was under fire.
Cops carried their spare rounds of ammunition in rectangular, leather pouches called dump pouches. Dump pouches typically hold six bullets and are attached upside down to the officer’s utility belt.
To access the extra bullets, officers simply unsnapped the pouch cover “dumping” the ammunition into their non-gun hand. The officer then fed the individual rounds into the open slots in the revolver’s rotating cylinder—one at a time. Needless to say, this is far easier said than done when someone is shooting in your direction.
Barney’s left hand rests on one of the two dump pouches on his utility belt. His index finger touches the other. The deputy-in-training also carries two dump pouches on his duty belt. Both are directly below the ticket book. Release snaps are clearly visible near the bottom of each pouch.
*Note – The thin vertical leather strap (with center snap) located to the right of deputy-in-training’s belt buckle is called a belt keeper. Its purpose is to attach the duty belt firmly to the regular dress belt. Keepers are used to prevent the gun belt/duty belt from sliding down over the hips. In the above photo the keeper is there, but it’s obviously not used properly.
To solve the problem of slow reloading came in the form of speed loaders. Speed loaders hold six rounds of ammunition that are perfectly aligned with the bullet slots in a revolver’s cylinder. A twist of a knurled knob on the end of the speed loader releases all six rounds at once. Shooters could now easily and quickly re-load their revolvers in tense situations, even in the dark.
Revolver, speed loaders, and speed loader pouches. The pouches attach to a police officer’s duty belt.
A revolver’s cylinder is designed to swing out for reloading. The knurled button between the hammer and the wooden grip is the cylinder’s release button.
Speed loaders position rounds so they line up perfectly with the bullet slots in the cylinder.
A twist of the knob in the officer’s right hand releases all six rounds at once.
Speed loaders are a wonderful tool. However, they don’t solve all revolver woes…
The Graveyard Shift welcomes Dr. D.P. Lyle as today’s guest expert.
D. P. Lyle, MD is the Macavity Award winning and Edgar Award nominated author of the non-fiction books Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers, a compilation of the most interesting questions he has received over the years, and Forensics For Dummies, an in depth look into the world of forensic science. His published fiction includes the thrillers Devil’s Playground and Double Blind.
He has worked as a story and technical consultant with many published authors as well as with the writers and producers of several popular television shows, including Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Cold Case, Peacemakers, House, Medium, and 1-800-Missing.
How and Why Folks Die
The death of actor Heath Ledger brings up a couple of important forensic issues. Namely, the Cause and Manner of death.
Simply put, the cause of death is what brought about the cessation of life. It could be a heart attack, a gunshot to the head, exsanguination (bleeding to death), or in Ledger’s case asphyxia from a narcotic overdose. The coroner’s report indicated that he had taken Oxy-Contin, Hydrocodone, Valium, Xanax, Restoril, and Unisom. The later four drugs are relatively safe unless consumed with alcohol or in combination as Ledger did. The big guns are the narcotics Oxy-Contin and hydrocodone. These are dangerous by themselves since they are both very powerful, more powerful than morphine and heroin. And when mixed with the other sedatives and sleeping aids he took they become very treacherous.Narcotics are what we call central nervous system (CNS) depressants. These are big words that mean they cause the victim to go to sleep, slip into a coma, stop breathing, and die from asphyxia, which basically is a lack of oxygen to the brain. It appears that this is exactly what happened in Ledger’s case. Fairly straightforward.
Hydrocodone 
The manner of death is a bit more complex. There are 5 manners of death: Natural, Accidental, Suicidal, Homicidal, and Undetermined. A drug OD is not natural so that one can be ruled out here. After that it’s not so clear. If he took all these drugs not knowing that this mixture could do him in, then the manner would be accidental. There was no intent on his part to do himself harm. If he took them in order to harm himself, then the manner would be suicide and if someone else slipped them to him without his knowledge it would be a homicide.In this situation, Ledger’s OD was likely accidental since the levels of none of the drugs was apparently very high. It was the combination that did him in.
Oxycontin 
If he were trying to commit suicide or if someone were trying to kill him, the ME would have expected to see much higher levels of one or more of the drugs in question. This should be obvious. If the intent was to do harm then overkill is usually in play. Large amounts of drugs are taken or given. A word about the Undetermined category. Since the autopsy and toxicological findings would be identical whether the drug OD was accidental, suicidal, or homicidal, the ME often can’t say for sure. He would then classify the manner of death as Undetermined. That is, the ME would not be able to say by whose hand and for what purpose the drug OD occurred.To help him make his determination the ME will often employ a forensic psychiatrist and ask him to perform a Psychological Autopsy. In this evaluation, the psychiatrist will review the victim’s personal, medical, and psychiatric history, interview friends, family members, co-workers, and maybe speak with his physicians. The goal is to assess the person’s state of mind and determine if anyone had any reason to want him dead. For example, if had an ongoing lawsuit against a business partner or was involved in a nasty divorce or child custody situation, then homicide must be considered. If he had shown signs of depression then suicide might be considered. But if he was excited about life, beginning a new project, or planning some big life event such as an upcoming wedding or new job that he was looking forward to, then an accidental OD would move to the top of the list. This is an inexact science and is often a best guess.From what I’ve read, Ledger’s death was most likely an accidental OD. It points out the danger of mixing drugs. D.P. Lyle, MD
www.dplylemd.com
After a long week of playing cops and robbers, it’s finally time to take a day off from fighting crime. I promise I’ll have you back in time for Dr. D.P. Lyle’s appearance here on The Graveyard Shift on Monday.
Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.
Remember, Dr. D P Lyle will be on hand on Monday to answer your forensics questions.
Dr. Lyle is the award-winning author of many books. He serves as a consultant for television and film writers, and he’s a practicing cardiologist in the L.A area.
The days of the ten print fingerprint card are almost over. No longer will police officers have to smear ink on a suspect’s fingertips to transfer his prints to a paper card. Many departments have switched to computerized booking stations that have the capability of capturing prints of all types – rolled, flat, and palm – into its database. The machines are also designed to snap those oh-so-attractive booking photos made popular by recent celebrity arrestees.
The top picture above (No, not Paris and her gang, although I’m sure her prints were taken on a machine similar to this one) is of a booking station called LiveScan, sold by Cogent Systems (There are several other manufacturers out there who make similar systems. This is just the equipment with which I’m most familiar). LiveScan units come factory-ready to connect to the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the FBI’s database – the largest collection of fingerprints in the world – over forty-seven million.
A LiveScan booking station stands nearly six-feet tall and weighs over two-hundred fifty pounds. It’s very durable, built to withstand the abuse of combative criminals and staggering drunks. The units are even equipped with their own portable cooling systems.
Image quality is very important when attempting match a suspect’s fingerprints to that of a print retrieved from the scene of a crime. Cogent’s resolution and quality picks up the finest detail of print ridges. In fact, the resolution meets all FBI standards.
Many departments across the U.S. simply don’t have the funds to purchase equipment like the LiveScan. Those agencies still rely on the messy ten print card system where officers roll a supect’s fingers across an ink pad and then transfer his prints to a pre-printed card. A large, one-gallon jug of orange-scented hand cleaner sits at ready to clean the stained hands of suspects and officers alike. The completed card is then mailed to the FBI in Clarksburg, West Virginia where technicians enter the information into the AFIS system.
Ten Print Card
Cogent has developed a mobile remote fingerprint scanner that easily configures with their existing LiveScan equipment using Bluetooth technology. Officers in the field can submit a suspect’s fingerprint directly to the AFIS system and receive the results of the search in minutes. This handy little pocket-size device is approximately four-and-a-half inches tall, one-and-a-half inches wide, and less than an inch thick, and weighs less three ounces.
(Photo from Cogent Systems)
By the way, most police officers refer to the booking procedure as “processing.” “Go process your prisoner.” Not, “Book ’em”
This is what it looks like to peer down-range from behind a Thompson fully-automatic submachine gun. You can actually see a spent cartridge ejecting at the lower right-hand side of the picture, just above the major’s right elbow.
The Thompson is an extremely heavy weapon that’s capable of firing 900 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition per minute, and let me tell you, that’s fast. The experience of firing one of these babies is like no other. I took this photo and was peppered with gunpowder during each burst of gunfire, even from the distance where I stood, which was as you see it. I didn’t use the zoom. We took this shot in a controlled situation while wearing full protective gear and employing other safety precautions. I say this because I don’t recommend this method of photography. It’s not safe. Gee, the things we do for book research.
The Thompson was extremely popular in the 1920s among both law enforcement and gangsters alike. The notorious John Dillinger and his gang amassed an arsenal of these “Chicago Typewriters.” The FBI and other agencies, such as the NYPD, also put Tommy Guns to use in their efforts to battle crime. In fact, the weapon became so popular in law enforcement circles it earned another nickname, The Anti-Bandit Gun.
During a traffic stop, officers go through almost every emotion imaginable, from the moment they activate their blue lights until the stop has reached its end. They never know what to expect. Is the driver wanted for a crime? Is he carrying dangerous drugs or other contraband? Is he armed? The list goes on.
Police academy instructors teach recruits how to be safe. They set up mock exercises simulating every possible scenario that officers could encounter once they hit the streets. New officers are taught to do certain things when making traffic stops. The officer in the picture above has positioned her patrol car on an angle to the roadway. She has her left hand on the trunk of the car. She’s looking ahead at the passing car while keeping the driver in her line of vision. She’s standing a certain way. Actually, it appears that she’s doing everything right. Good for her because she had no idea a photographer was behind her. We were pretty sneaky.
Now it’s time to put the shoe on the other foot. I’m asking each of you to tell me why the officer has decided to do the things she’s done. Remember, she wants to go home at the end of her shift.
