Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

Other articles in this area of automatic shoeprint recognition, published outside the
forensic science arena, were only available in abstract form. Among these worth
mentioning are studies by Gueham and his colleagues (58-60), regarding
automatic recognition of partial shoeprints using a correlation filter classifier and
Fourier-Mellin transform, and automatic classification of partial shoeprints using
advanced correlation filters for use in forensic science.
2.7 Miscellaneous
The issue of footwear size distribution, and even the size of a specific shoe, may
also be important. An article by Turner (61), in the SATRA Bulletin, explains the
different sizing scales and the nomenclature used by the footwear industry in this
aspect.
Identifying the make and model of footwear recovered from crime scenes is indeed
a standard police technique. Taking it a step forward, Tonkin and his colleague
(62, 63) demonstrated how this information could be used in the profiling of
offender characteristics. Their findings demonstrate the value of footwear evidence
as a prospective tool in the proactive search for offenders, which contrasts with the
current use of footwear evidence in police investigations. Currently, the value of
footwear evidence relies on the a priori identification of a suspect from whom to
take an impression for comparison purposes. This, of course, limits the value of
footwear evidence. However, the studied technique overcomes these limitations
by allowing footwear evidence to help the police in their search for an unknown
offender.
Various materials adhering to the surface of footwear, or found inside it, are a
potentially fruitful source of information for forensic reconstruction. Morgan and her
colleagues (64) present a case where a soil sample was found on the suspect’s
footwear, and compared with soil samples from the body burial site and from a
suspect vehicle. It is interesting to mention that these authors also studied the
persistence of soil residues on the shoes following machine wash, and found that
even though the footwear looked clean, such residues were recovered from their
inner part.
Riding and his colleagues (65) studied the changes in pollen assemblages on
footwear that had been worn at different sites. This study shows that when mixing
occurs from wearing footwear at different sites, the pollen/spore content of the
boots etc. dominantly reflects that of the last site.
3. Toolmarks
From a practical point of view, the field of toolmark examinations (namely the
examination of marks produces by surfaces other than firearms) is, in a way, the
“poor family-member” of firearm identification. Many of the professional groups, as
well as published articles, are dedicated mainly to firearm examinations, and
toolmarks are referred to matter-of-factly. Since firearm issues are covered by
63