Cpl. Mark Ensor uses the example of an apparent suicide: Police find a gun on the scene, gather a cartridge case off the floor and take the bullet pulled from the body. They bring their evidence to the Baltimore County crime lab looking for a match.
Investigators examine the cartridge casing for grooves, aligned markings ? the unique, telltale signs that it matches the bullet and they came from the same gun in the critical blast. If those forensic “fingerprints” don?t match up, detectives might have a homicide in their hands.
Now Baltimore County police have a powerful new comparison microscope to help investigators more quickly read those tiny, revealing signs.
“The more recent the crime, the more valuable” the results of such tests, Ensor said Tuesday at a news conference. With the new equipment, he said, “you?ll save two days” on a week-long case.
Three people in the department have the requisite training to use the $66,000 comparison microscope, which was funded through the nonprofit Baltimore County Police Foundation.
Chief Terrence Sheridan said the new equipment will enable investigators to do a “much more effective and much more efficient job” tracking down criminals.
Capable of magnifying an image up to 80 times its size, the microscope arrived two weeks ago in a crate and took a day to set up, Ensor said. The microscope has two separate lenses that display the images on a flat computer screen. Investigators then can enlarge the images and examine them for matching marks.
Whether the evidence is as small as a bullet or as large as the splintered and caved-in section of a door broken during a burglary, for instance, Ensor said the microscope can accommodate it so investigators can search for the tiniest of clues.
Be it a suicide or a break-in, he said, the microscope will help police “confirm that everything adds up.”
