Citation

Bruehs WE, Tucker NM, Meline KA. J. Forensic Sci. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14944

PMID

34799848

Abstract

Often, criminal acts involving a vehicle are caught on digital video surveillance systems. While potentially useful for an investigation, the recording conditions are typically less than optimal for the extraction of key information for the identification of the perpetrator, such as a license plate. Providing the make, model and year of a questioned vehicle is a common request for examiners, to narrow the field of potential suspect vehicles. This study seeks to compare the performance of a nonpeer-reviewed make, model, and year determination between two separate groups, specifically, trained forensic image examiners and nontrained individuals.

RESULTS show that even with varied image capture conditions and quality, the trained forensic image examiners more correctly and completely identified the test group of questioned vehicles make, model, and year.

Language: en

Keywords

Black Box; content analysis; DAIS; Digital Automotive Image System; FAVIAU; Forensic Audio Video and Image Analysis Unit; image analysis; make/model determination; questioned vehicle; vehicle class characteristics; vehicle identification