Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

ENFSI collaborative testing programme gives the laboratories an opportunity to
review their original methods by taking advantage of the varied information derived
from these exercises. The overall review of the laboratories’ results is carried out by
the organising committee and represents one of its valuable outputs. 164 In the test
organized in 2008, forty-five laboratories were listed to participate, eventually fortythree
of them (96%) returned their analysis results for evaluation. From the 42
laboratories that identified and classified the samples, 37 classifications were
considered correct (88%). One laboratory was not able to detect this product in the
165, 166
sample.
Table 1. Results of CTS-tests.
CTS-test 2007 167 2008 168 2009 169
Participants 329 345 371
Returned 269 (82%) 286 (83%) 302 (81%)
Correct answer from the returned 90-96% 94-98% 91-96%
Table 2. Results of ENFSI/FEIWG-tests.
ENFSI/FEIWG-test 2007 2008 2009
Participants 41 45 44
Returners 38 (93%) 43 (97%) 42
varies per
Correct answer from the returned 71-84% 37 (88%) element of the
test
9. Summary
Although being perhaps the most important section of forensic fire investigation,
sampling has not gained adequate attention in the studies. Samples gathered from
fire scenes require new and suitable packaging methods. Packaging materials should
be easy not only for carrying, but also for handling and sampling for different analysis
techniques. The use of canine units is useful in field examinations and even their
number should be raised. On the other hand, attention should be paid to the dogs’
training, in validation and monitoring their quality.
Fuels have been classified e.g. on the basis of high temperature gas chromatography
mass spectrometry (HTGC-MS) with a programmable temperature vaporizer injector
and fast gas chromatography coupled with a fast scanning quadrupole ion trap mass
spectrometer (GC-QIT MS). These methods were referred to in respect to fire debris
analysis only in single articles. It will be interesting to see how these aforememtioned
methods will be developed further.
Statistical methods have gained some attention in analytics, but those applied for fire
scene investigation will hopefully be developed in the near future. At the same time
modelling may be a powerful tool for retrospectively establishing the cause and the
starting point of fire. Applying modelling methods calls for deeper knowledge about
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