I decided to initiate a separate thread on this subject so as not to hijack the other Boston Marathon bombing discussion.
I know there are forum members who are military, intelligence, law enforcement, and security professionals and possess a wealth of knowledge with respect to the investigatory techniques employed in attempting to solve a crime such as bombing yesterday in Boston. And I certainly don’t expect anyone to divulge any information that would be considered confidential or classified.
But I’m just curious. How good are we at this type of thing? We all have seen the CSI version and the fictionalized accounts which show up in movies and novels. The area where the bombing occurred in Boston must have been covered by a significant number of cameras, plus the additional TV coverage due to the marathon. Officials are requesting private citizens to submit any pictures or video images they may have (and there have to be a ton of these). Boston police officials have stated there were two sweeps of the area by bomb-sniffing dogs prior to the race. I assume they have determined the origins of the blasts and have been able to collect debris from these explosions.
It seems highly likely that the persons responsible for placing these bombs are on one or more of these video records. I know there is facial recognition software but I have no idea how good it is. So I can’t help but wonder if officials might not already know who the bad guys are but have not made an arrest because they want to locate and surveil these suspects or because they simply don’t want to tip their hand as to how sophisticated their capabilities are in these types of investigations.
Touchy subject, I know. Those that do have inside knowledge are unlikely to discuss these matters and the rest of us are left to merely speculate. But it is an intriguing subject.
We have to deal with the “CSI Effect” all the time, whether it’s on calls or in court. I had a lady that wanted me to collect a turd from a toilet in her vacation home to test for DNA because the guy/girl who broke into the home left her a floater to come home to. She points at it and says “What can you do with that?” I simply leaned over and said “this” and flushed the toilet. She actually filed a complaint for “destruction of evidence.” Some people don’t get it thanks to TV.
That all being said we are very capable of some pretty impressive shit especially when it comes to some of the better equipped and funded labs, such as the FBI Evidence Response Teams (who are no doubt on the ground in Boston), however it’s also not something I’m willing to discuss on an open forum on the inter-nut. It’s safe to say that they are holding many more cards than they are releasing to appease the media talking heads.
Operational Security means you don’t disclose methods in a public setting. I wish those who may end up working this success in identifying and bringing to justice the culprit(s).
Dave, NATGEO aired a documentary entitled Bomb Squad NYC recently. Outstanding show about the unit and what they do, they go into a little how they reconstruct bombs and ID materials, parts, manufactures, et al. so as not to violate OPSEC. Also there is a series on G4 network entitled Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan that follows a Navy EOD unit around, pretty informative show as well.
It’s actually pretty amazing what can be done. I am stunned and amazed when in a country with no infrastructure, little electricity and predominantly outdoor plumbing, we can travel across the ocean, work some post blast mojo, and connect people to devices. The US/western world has mad post blast skills.
Bwahahaha! Sorry guys had to laugh, this just made my day. On a serious note, yes we do have some amazing technology in use although not as pretty as a CSI show but still can get the job done and like a fellow poster said there is just some things that cannot be divulged on a open forum.
I know first-hand that Kodak has developed some REALLY impressive image enhancing software. If the FBI uses something like that, they’ll be able to clean up a lo-res frame and get something out of it.
Assuming the bomber(s) haven’t already left the country (like the Times Square guy tried to) the surveillance cameras will be the key (like with the Times Square pakistani). Unless they were smart enough to hire some patsies to dump off their goody bags, which would really complicate and slow down things. If they had a bug out plan, they’re probably in Yemen or Pakistan by now. Doesn’t seem like Boston had as good of a lockdown plan as New York.
The whole attack struck me as extremely amateurish. We ain’t exactly dealing with the best and brightest. The diameter of projectiles was pretty small (4mm) according to physicians, probably cans of BB pellets bought at wally world. Nails were also supposedly used. No wonder so many people were wounded and very few were killed.
