Forensic science examiner James Streeter of Groton set up an eye-opening PowerPoint presentation at the Bill Memorial Library in Groton City, April 3. Groton-area residents were treated to a peek of real untelevised CSI work up-close and personal. By presenting some crime scenes, information on cases, and examples of the capabilities of some of his high-tech devices, Streeter’s audience of about 30 were amazed.
“I’m on the board of trustees for the library…they know that I work at the Forensic Science Laboratory [and] they asked if I could give a presentation to help out the library,” Streeter said.
Streeter presented what he calls “the CSI stuff.” In the field of forensics for more than 25 years, Streeter explained to the library audience that he worked for the Connecticut State Crime Laboratory in Meriden for 13 years, assisting in the development of many cases in a variety of ways. He said his type of work is not like what viewers see on television shows, where cases are always solved within the hour.
In a recent interview, Streeter said one of his special disciplines was being a questioned document examiner.
“A questioned document examiner does handwriting and signature comparisons…we look at documents for alteration, obliterations, and erasures,” he explained.
He added that he examines indented writing and different types of ink and restores documents.
“There can be documents that have gotten wet, charred, or burned up in a fire,” Streeter explained. “We restore those, mostly just to determine the authenticity of a document.”
During Streeter’s slide show at the library, he also discussed different situations in which he used his skills as an imprint and impressions examiner, showing examples of its use to indicate footprints and tire impressions.
“If you step in blood, you step over here and then step over there, I can compare the impressions that you left with your shoes, and, egotistically, there’s 58 of us in the world that are certified to do that,” he said. “If a particular device or instrument was used as an assault weapon…we make a determination to try to find out what instrument or device made that and compare the marks.”
He added that an imprint and an impression are two different things.
“An imprint is two dimensions—length and width—and an impression is three-dimensional, where it also has depth. For instance, if you stepped into mud or snow, that’s an impression.”
A couple of Streeter’s slides had the crowd smiling and laughing in amazement as he displayed the abilities of some of his key high-tech lab equipment. He displayed many slides showing lines of black ink, and Streeter noted that to the naked eye, they all looked the same. His next slide showed different lines of black ink through alternate light systems, magnifying the inks and revealing their differences.
He used a picture of a forged check he had examined in one of his cases as an example of how this information would be helpful. It was evident that the check had been altered from a $6 check into a $60 check when the alternate lighting system was used and the check was magnified.
Streeter then introduced the room to his ESDA, or Electrostatic Detection Apparatus.
“We use that for indented writing,” he explained to the audience.
The device, he said, depending on the amount of pressure that was used when the document was written, can pick up previous writing that was done on top of a sheet of paper. In other words, if you have written your phone number on a piece of paper on a note-pad and removed that piece of paper to write an address, ESDA could pick up the previous written phone number from as deep as 15 pages.
To give examples of the device’s capabilities, Streeter discussed different cases where notes were left at every crime scene, and through indented writing, examiners could tell that the first note was written on top of the paper used for the second note and that the first and second notes were written on top of the paper that was used for the third note and so on. With the help of ESDA, he said he was able to indicate which note came first.
Director of the Bill Memorial Library Hali Keeler said the program turned out very well and that the crowd was so enthusiastic about his presentation, they didn’t want it to end. She was particularly impressed by the amount of knowledge Streeter presented and the way he made its technical aspects accessible to the public.
“You see it on television all the time, but here is this guy that lives in the neighborhood that does it every day…I think that’s what made it amazing,” Keeler noted.
Providing lectures on “CSI stuff” around the local area, Streeter said it was his apprenticeship and job training in law enforcement since he was in his early 20s that got him into this line of work.
“I apprenticed under both of those positions [as questioned document examiner and as a certified imprint and impressions examiner] under court-qualified examiners,” he added. “Every day is different, I know I’m contributing to society by doing the examinations. I can either identify or eliminate a suspect. That’s extremely important because by doing that…we can mostly bring my cases to a satisfactory conclusion.”