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Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and the Hollywood Effect

We all know that CSI New York / Miami / Vegas are dramas and that they are works of Fiction….

On a subliminal level, maybe not?

The detectives on these shows basically create a world whereby they can guess any password using their, “Intuition”. They can wave a light around and instantly see a microscopic sized flake of skin and always with at least three people in front of a computer screen they can, “….zoom in, stop, enhance, zoom in, pan right, zoom out, enhance, rotate 180, Zoom in”, to reveal the reflection of the perp’s face on the side of a beer can…

For sure, technological advances mean that searching for and collating information can be dramatically improved, but, please keep the usefulness of any technology and its application in its correct place.

To take an example, It is possible to enable on the I phone an application that reveals the whereabouts of a spouse or partner if they also have a related, “App” enabled, this currently happens with the full consent and knowledge of all the parties involved, mainly because party, “A” has to actually access the mobile phone of party, “B”, to enable the software. Perhaps with the rise in TV dramas showing illicit software and, “work arounds”, we should be pushing for a shut down in this sort of tracking technology altogether, before the fiction of the media becomes a reality…..in effect the media can introduce mischief and promote law breaking without being aware that it is actually happening.

As private investigators and professional witnesses our evidence is used in Courts throughout the land. We get involved in civil crime investigations, complex crime investigations, criminal prosecutions, defense and prosecution work. The evidence we present can decide the outcome of the case being heard. The point that I am trying to make is that in trials that have a jury, the jury are often “Underwhelmed”, by the traditional evidence presented (reports, statements, photographs, etc.) and seem to want to see a, “Hollywood type”, presentation of evidence, instead (Enhance, Zoom, Pan….). Some jurors have researched the “Hollywood” crime scene relating to a particular case as they are underway and have introduced an unnecessary dimension to the proceedings that sometimes means the entire jury has had to be dismissed at vast expense to the public purse.

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