Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

1. Introduction
This report catalogues the research, advances and application of scientific
methodology relating to the forensic examination of fibres since the 15 th
INTERPOL Forensic Science Symposium held in October 2007. This report
primarily consists of a literature review of published articles in forensic science
journals and the proceedings of various working groups between May 2007
and July 2010. It also contains references from other sources such as the
internet. This report should therefore be considered a ‘follow-on’ from that
produced by the author [1] in 2007.
2. General
The European Fibre Group (EFG) of the European Network of Forensic
Science Institutes (ENFSI) and the Fibre subgroup of the Scientific Working
Group for Materials Analysis (SWGMAT) led by the FBI, continue to be the
main organisations promoting and developing this evidence type worldwide.
Many of the citations in this document originate from the activities of these
groups and/ or their members.
The EFG remains committed to disseminating best practice and over the last
3 years has continued its program of themed ‘development’ workshops, aimed
at court reporting practitioners with less than 3 years experience. The 2008
workshop was held at the ‘Spiritka’ facility in Prague, where the topics
covered were identification, comparison and interpretation. The next
workshop is planned for spring 2011, with the theme to be decided.
The planned production by the EFG of a document outlining the best use of
fibre evidence in terrorist cases is now complete and the official launch of the
“Fibre and Textile Evidence in Terrorist Cases - A guide for investigators.” will
take place at the 16th International Forensic Science Symposium, ICPO-
Interpol General Secretariat, Lyon, 2010. This document is not intended as a
proscriptive laboratory or scenes of crime ‘manual’, but rather as a source of
reference for investigators of the ways in which the forensic examination of
fibres and textile materials can be applied to specific areas in the
investigations of terrorist casework, counter-terrorism initiatives and other
major crime investigations.
The information contained in this document represents a pan-European
collaboration of operational practitioners in this evidence type in direct
response to the challenges presently faced by law enforcement agencies
throughout the world. In addition, the revisions to the EFG Fibre Examination
Guidelines document (originally published in 1998) is almost complete.
Similarly, in 2008, the SWGMAT Fibre Sub-Group worked on revising the
Fibre Analysis Guideline, and began to put together an admissibility package.
The admissibility package will discuss the underlying science behind fibre
analysis, with the goal of providing a contained summary used to explain in
courts of law what forensic fibre analysis is. In 2009, SWGMAT published an
Expert Reporting Guideline. This document describes the minimum elements
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