WTF? Japanese cops did something right!

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]
Evidence Beneath Your Feet--from Law Enforcement Technology at Officer.com, April 14, 2006
....In 1965 three identification experts with the Metropolitan Police Department of Japan developed a new method to detect and collect dust impressions at crime scenes. They rubbed the surface of a black celluloid sheet with a woolen cloth to generate static electricity. They then placed the celluloid over a dust impression on the floor and rubbed it again with the same woolen cloth. The static electricity caused the dust impression to cling to the celluloid sheet, lift off of the floor, and appear distinctly on the sheet, writes William Bodziak in "Footwear Impression Evidence." Since this innovation, electrostatic dust lifters have evolved into powerful yet simple tools used to search for, detect and collect impressions in dust at crime scenes....more...
[INDENT]----At least the Keystone Cops have truth in advertising with their turtle logo on their traffic safety page.

The last time the Kanazawa Keisatsu aka the Keystone Cops were out at my house to investigate a burglary (one of 3 or 4 burglaries in 15 yrs) , I snickered at them spending a half hour with odd LED flashlights staring at my lino floors. It seemed like that was their only interest in investigation---now I learn that's its a Japanese tech that's slowly filtered to theWest. [/INDENT]

[amdg]

I don’t doubt they’re very skilled at collecting evidence, I just wonder what they do with it afterwards… It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to just to build up a file on a perpetrator that you’re never going to pin the crime on.

[Taro Toporific]

[quote="amdg"]I don’]
I would love to bad mouth the Kanazawa Keisatsu and the do-nothing "wa-police" in general. However, in my case the burglars were caught in north Tokyo about 8 months later on routine parking violation. They used the foot prints to "prove" the confessions (even Japanese judges mistrust confessions after police torture).

[amdg]

[Taro Toporific]

...There must be a whole lot more to it - as in the police already had a fair idea who was responsible for the burglary and they just needed a chance to get the guys on some other violation before they could start the questioning.

It was just dumb luck for cops.
The getaway car blocked the parking area for moving vans. The moving company called the cops to send a a tow truck. They towed the car to police impound lot where the car was never picked up. When the cops checked the trunk, they found hot goods. The car's registration was tracked back to a JAPANESE landlord of a gaijin house for Chinese. The landlord and owner of the car copped a plea and ratted out the Chinese "picking" gang who were his tenants. The cops swore up and down to me the landlord was duped --- the cops offered me no help to press for a civil judgement against the landlord and car owner as an accessory to the burglary. Bah. At least I was over-insured for that loss.

[amdg]

[Taro Toporific]

[quote="amdg"]Wow –]

It was couple hundred burglaries over 10 months. The burglars admitted nothing; their Japanese landlord (who may have been in on the whole thing) ratted them out. The Japanese cops got their gaijin convictions (four Chinese) so everyone was "happy" and the wa was preserved.