Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 - NSW Ombudsman - NSW ...

Recommendation 40
NSW Police retain its current practice of obtaining confirmation samples for all identifications made through
“cold links”.
8.7. Other types of procedures conducted
This section provides a brief overview of some of the other types of procedures which can be conducted under the
Act, and any problems police had conducting them. 804 Again, we found that most forensic procedures are conducted
without any difficulties.
Forensic procedures other than DNA samples may need to be conducted by specialists. Some can only be
conducted by doctors, nurses, dentists or dental technicians. Others may be conducted by appropriately qualified
police officers.
8.7.1. Photographs
Photographs taken under the Act may be intimate (photographs of the genital area, anal area, buttocks of a person
and breasts of a female or transgender person) or non-intimate (photographs of other parts of the body). 805
Forensic procedure photographs are taken by appropriately qualified police officers. Accreditation for photographs
falls into two categories – technical and non-technical photos. Any appropriately qualified officer can take non-intimate
photographs that do not require any specialist technical skills. Specially trained officers take photographs of injuries
and other specialist photos, including intimate photographs and photographs requiring additional technical skills.
For example, police may wish to photograph blood on a suspect’s hands, or a suspect’s injuries (such as injuries
to the hand of a person suspected of assault). Police may wish to photograph distinctive marks on a suspect’s
body, such as tattoos or scars, if they are relevant to a witness’ description of an offender. They may wish to take a
photograph of something visually distinctive about the suspect, which may easily be changed, such as hair colour.
Police may also want to take photographs to compare to other evidence, like closed circuit television (CCTV) footage.
Case Study 57
A fight in a hotel was captured on closed circuit television. The recording showed the offender take a schooner,
smash it on a chair and then stab the victim in the cheek with it, causing a severe laceration. It then showed the
offender quickly leave the hotel. Police identified a suspect, who was arrested and interviewed. Police took a
photograph of the suspect under the Act to compare it to the CCTV footage. 806
Generally, forensic procedure photographs are taken without any difficulty. However, we did identify some problems:
• Uncertainty about whether a photograph is a forensic procedure – as discussed at 9.1.2, there is some
confusion about the circumstances in which taking a photograph is a forensic procedure.
• Electronic recording of the procedure – as discussed at 8.5.6, we found that some officers were not aware
that forensic procedure photographs had to be electronically recorded. Others knew about the requirement,
but argued that it should be abolished.
• Treating photographs of victims as a forensic procedure – as discussed at 9.4, many officers we spoke to
objected to having to take victims of personal violence offences through the forensic procedure process.
We note that this is NSW Police policy and is not required by the Act.
• Length of time taken to conduct the procedure – the Police Association of NSW argued that it takes
approximately two hours to take forensic procedure photographs. We note that we watched a number of
videos of forensic procedure photographs being taken, and none took this long.
152
NSW Ombudsman
DNA sampling and other forensic procedures conducted on suspects and volunteers under the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000