As police budget cuts bite, and the national Forensic Science Service is closed, forces across the country are eager to maintain a high level of crime detection. A one-day event is being hosted by the University of Leicester Deptartment of Engineering, which is one of the university departments heavily engaged in forensic science research and innovation, and will allow delegates to consider new, creative ways of working together.
Dr John Bond OBE, former head of Northamptonshire’s forensic science department and now a senior lecturer in Chemistry at the University is hopeful that significant collaborations will be forged as a result of sharing best practice: “Future success in this area is likely to be closely tied to projects that can demonstrate genuine collaboration between the police and academics and show real value for money benefits in terms of solving crime which, after all, is the aim of forensic science. It is now time to encourage and develop closer links between police forces wishing to innovate in order to maintain or improve their performance with less funding, and academics with the skills and knowledge to enable them to do so.”
One way to advance this collaboration, practiced for some time at the University of Leicester, is to set up formal agreements to work with police forces to identify areas for future development. Recent examples of this at the uni include research into stab injuries undertaken by the Department of Engineering and new methods of fingerprint enhancement by the Department of Chemistry that have received international acclaim and innovation awards. In collaboration with Northamptonshire Police, the university developed revised criteria for Crime Scene Examiner attendance at crime scenes that resulted in a significant increase in crimes detected with forensic science.
Joining Dr John Bond on the platform will be Professor Bernard Silverman, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office; Nottinghamshire Deputy Chief Constable Chris Eyre, Northamptonshire Supt Mick Stamper and Professor Guy Rutty, Head of the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, University Hospitals of Leicester.
