Date
December 2015
Overview
This report was published in RTI Press, a global publisher of peer-reviewed, open-access publications on a broad range of topics. The areas of focus reflect RTI’s multidisciplinary research, our expertise in social and laboratory sciences, and our extensive international activities. Since 2008, the RTI Press has produced more than 100 publications.
RTI International, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) present the proceedings from the 2015 Impression, Pattern, and Trace Evidence Symposium (IPTES). The IPTES was held August 25–27 in San Antonio, Texas, as the first joint symposium to promote collaboration, enhance knowledge transfer, and share best practices and policies for the impression, pattern, and trace evidence forensic science communities. This symposium convened practitioners and researchers to promote information-sharing and collaboration among the law enforcement, legal, and impression, pattern, and trace evidence communities. During this 3-day event, leading experts in their respective fields presented to an audience of nearly 600 attendees. The presentations focused on topics that included the latest developments and novel approaches to fingerprint, shoeprint, and tire tread evidence; questioned documents; bloodstain pattern analysis; biometrics; firearms/toolmarks; digital photography; and fibers, paint, tape, and other types of evidence as well as addressing error rates, testimony, interpretation/reporting, case studies, and technology applications. The proceedings include author information, abstracts, keywords, and type of presentation.
About the Editors
Jeri Ropero-Miller, PhD, is a principal investigator (PI) and Senior Research Forensic Scientist in RTI International’s Center for Forensic Sciences. She is a board-certified forensic toxicologist with Fellow status on the American Board of Forensic Toxicology (F-ABFT). She has more than 20 years of experience conducting research, training, technology transfer, and evaluations in forensic science and criminal justice.
Crystal M. Daye, MPA, is a Research Associate in RTI’s Center for Justice, Safety and Resilience. Through the Center’s Policing, Security, and Investigative Science Program, she’s worked on a number of projects focused on emerging topics in law enforcement strategies and operations and forensics.
Heidi Eldridge, MS, is a Research Forensic Scientist in the Center for Forensic Sciences at RTI. Ms. Eldridge has over 11 years’ experience in forensic science in the domains of latent prints, crime scene analysis and reconstruction, and controlled substances.
Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence report was provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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