PW_4_2025

Professional Development

One particularly unusual presentation - a university in Germany has developed a method of comparing the skeletal features of an offender on CCTV to suspects in custody with a high level of confidence. This method involves scanning the scene with existing 3D technology, but also scanning the suspect via a turntable and multiple cameras. In the middle of the week we travelled to Bonn, where we had a tour of their regional HQ - a large, modern, steel and glass building quite unlike any police station I saw during my service! During the visit we saw a forensics team, visited the control room and had a presentation on cold cases from a university professor who works with the police. Our final full day was dedicated to various presentations from Byron Chamberlain, BTP’s scenes of crime supervisor. These fascinating inputs covered topics as varied as basic forensics at a scene, body recovery on the railway and disaster victim identification at major incidents like Grenfell Tower, the Manchester Arena bombing and the Croydon tram crash. And in between all of the sessions I enjoyed all that Gimborn has to offer - great food including a Romanian dinner and a BBQ, and of course the delights of the Turmbar!

POLICE WORLD Vol 70 No.4, 2025

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