Science steps up

Criminals may avoid leaving fingerprints by using gloves but they can’t avoid leaving tell-tale impressions of what they are wearing on their feet.

This, coupled with a change in the law which enables the police to demand impressions of footwear from suspects, is why shoeprints are suddenly of great interest to police and forensic scientists.

Work just starting at the University of Sheffield will examine how automated computer systems could help the police search and match shoeprints in order to link suspects to crime scenes.

“In some ways shoeprints are the forgotten part of forensic science,” comments Professor Nigel Allinson who is leading the EPSRC-funded study, “but while they aren’t as unique as, say, DNA evidence they are often present at the scene.”

Currently the task of matching an impression to a suspect’s shoes is laborious and difficult.

Many of the problems relate to the evidence itself, as it often consists of partial impressions such as toe scuff marks on a door or faint heel impressions on a carpet. A variety of techniques are used to capture this evidence including photography, gels, powders and even that movie stalwart the plaster cast: making for poor quality images for comparison purposes.