Cutting-edge crime scene technology comes to FSW

"I've got bones for Thursday."

It's pretty safe to say those words won't be heard anywhere else on campus at Florida SouthWestern State College.

But that's something you might hear in professor Dennis Fahey's crime scene technology class. They were spoken by Shawn Dahl, one of Fahey's former students who is now enrolled in a graduate program at FGCU.

The class for FSW's crime scene technology associate degree program is small in size, but it has some toys that few other organizations in the state — maybe even the country — have access to, including many law enforcement offices.

Hands-on analysis

Fahey's students have access to automated fingerprint identification system (commonly known as AFIS) software, state-of-the-art microscopes and a cutting-edge laser scanner that can create 3D images of crime scenes.

He takes students to "crime scene island"  —  a small swatch of land on FSW's campus where crime scenes are staged. There, students may dig up a manikin covered in pork ribs — to attract insects and produce an authentic smell.

In building B just above Fahey's lab, there's an apartment. But no one lives there. Instead, manikins go there to die. The room is furnished with a dusty TV set, old book shelves, a lava lamp and a painting of a clown. A pair of manikins rest on top of an old bed, awaiting staged untimely demises.

Fahey's lab is a tidy room with rows of microscopes, bins labeled "latent chemicals" or "crime scene props," multiple computers, a fingerprint scanner and the latest in 3D measurement technology.

That technology is a FARO series laser scanner. Using a mirror, it sends out a laser that scans an area. Millions of points of data are stored on the device's computer, which can then be uploaded, creating an image of what was scanned. That image can be manipulated using software. The images it recreates are near photograph quality, but give users the freedom to move around in three-dimensions and take measurements of anything in the scan, as well as other applications.

The distance from a bullet shell casing to a body, for example, is one such application, Fahey said. When three of Fahey's students were manipulating a scan they took last week, they could see a wall clock's hands change, since each scan takes a few minutes to complete.

The machine retails for about $125,000, according to John Meyer, dean of the school of business and technology. FSW used grant money to get it and, according to Fahey, the college is the first in the five-county area to acquire one. Neither Cape Coral nor Fort Myers police departments have these scanners, according to spokesmen. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman said their Fort Myers office does not one of these scanners, but they have four across the state.

It's not just details that the machine makes easier, Fahey said. It saves time. Instead of shutting Interstate 75 down for hours to take photographs and measurements, the machine can scan the scene in less than a hour, lessening road closure times and providing more accurate information, he said.

Slideshows put together using the scans create what Fahey calls the "CSI effect" for jurors when it comes to the courtroom. Named for the popular TV show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," Fahey said jurors nowadays "want to be entertained." Since they are not taken to crime scenes "99 percent of the time," this technology can offer a glimpse. "We've taken the jury and put them at the scene," he said.

New applications

The FARO laser scanner was not originally intended to be used to analyze crime scenes, Fahey said. When he took a training class, it was him and 11 engineers, he said. Since the scans allow users to see through walls and move through space with freedom, architects and engineers use the scanner in building-infrastructure planning. "Crime scene, it was an afterthought," Fahey said.

The professional applications for the crime scene technology program are many, said Meyer. People looking at careers in criminal justice, law or public safety administration should have some familiarity with how crime scene analysis works. "They need to know how to not goof it up," he said.

Since the FARO technology is still new, students who get time with it should have a leg up in the job market.

Shawn Dahl, a former Fahey student and current FGCU graduate student, is hoping to get more time with the FARO scanner. Short of a career in academia, he is looking into law enforcement, possibly in the medical examiner's office, he said.

But for now, he's hoping to incorporate information culled from these 3D scans into his thesis, he said. "It's absolutely unbelievable," to have access to this type of equipment in a local school, Dahl said.

"This is so cool," said Tara Sahagian, who, along with Melissa Yuhl and Dahl, were manipulating the scans for the first time last Tuesday.

"They take to it like fish to water," Fahey said.

As Dahl sees it, the scans most practical application is measurements. Exact depth of bodies or human remains ("Not to be gross," he said) is much easier using these scans and will leave crime scenes in better condition. It allows users to "examine evidence relative to other evidence," he said.

As for those "human-like" bones Dahl secured for class: They will be buried on crime scene island for students to exhume.

FARO 3D scanner

• What: A device that uses a mirror to bounce a laser that scans an area and collects millions of points of data, stores them on a computer and uses data create an image of that area

• Scan range: About 426 feet

• Cost: About $125,000

• Acquired by FSW: About a year ago

• Uses: building infrastructure, crime scene analysis, land surveying, accident reconstruction