Real CSI

[Hazell B]

Some people watch CSI Miami and all that dross and think it's real. They expect the police to actually lift fingerprints and DNA and get the bad guy every time.

It's entertainment! It isn't real in any way.

There's a TV show tonight (I'm told, sorry no idea when and what channel) about just how far from the truth these shows tend to be. I hope it opens a few eyes :mark:

[AndySpeed]

Exactly. For example, on the TV show CSI (which I really think is very entertaining) they all wear classy, smart clothes even when investigating the crime scenes. Not a white coat in sight!

I know someone doing a CSI course and it's not one single bit like the TV series

[janneppi]

[David Carusoesque comment] We may have to eat excrement to solve this one [/David Carusoesque comment] [que guiter noises and trendy fast camera shots of actors]

[ShiftingGears]

Most CSI Miami episodes have a strange fixation with collecting semen samples, and David Caruso putting on ANOTHER pair of sunglasses.

Classy entertainment :D

[Hazell B]

The original CSI was good to start with, then they ran out of Darwin Award material and funny web myths to draw from. Now it's mistake riddled swill.

The real police don't tend to get handy blobs of blood dribbled from a lone left handed, one legged magician who now happens to have a deformed hand that can only hold sharp objects a specific way :p :

[CarlMetro]

The programmes may be pieces of crap fictional work, where the crimes commited are always solved, but I still find them entertaining and prefer to watch them instead of the dross which ITV turn out every day :s

[Eki]

Some people watch CSI Miami and all that dross and think it's real. They expect the police to actually lift fingerprints and DNA and get the bad guy every time.

It's entertainment! It isn't real in any way.

There's a TV show tonight (I'm told, sorry no idea when and what channel) about just how far from the truth these shows tend to be. I hope it opens a few eyes :mark:
Come on! The next you'll probably try to make us believe that not all women in Miami are young, beautiful and wear bikini most of the time.

[Erki]

Come on! The next you'll probably try to make us believe that not all women in Miami are young, beautiful and wear bikini most of the time.

Don't worry, as long as Juan Pablo and Connie still living there, there's no shortage of young, beautiful women.

[Eki]

Don't worry, as long as Juan Pablo and Connie still living there, there's no shortage of young, beautiful women.
Juan Pablo isn't that young, certainly not beautiful and maybe not even a woman.

[Erki]

You want Connie or not, that's the question.

[tannat]

Could you post the name of the show and network, Hazell?
Probably won't cross the pond in any form..


I do clinical research for a living which demands routine analysis of RNA and DNA samples. For the past 5 years I've operated an instrument used in forensic pathology (we use it for other purposes). While I haven't watched a great deal of the crime/science genre on TV today, the little bit I've seen appears authentic. If a non-degraded (there are ways of testing the quality)
specimen ( blood, hair, semen, or even stool) can be collected, then it is not a difficult thing to submit it to a few procedures and sequence the DNA. While various things can happen once a specimen is in a lab (contamination, confusion, muddied-up procedures), it's fairly safe to say that labs which do this sort of processing should be performing at a high level, and mistakes/errors ahould not happen. But we are all human...


So then you have a sequence of DNA, but you have to find an owner of that sequence. To me, that is a bit of magic that I see in these shows. There is no government database of DNA sequences of all residents in the world (probably not in our lifetime, but I bet this will happen in my child's lifetime), so you must still be a detective to find out "who did it".

Final note: Our HLA lab (Human Leukocyte Antigen-basis for all donor/patient matching in transplant) routinely receives anonymous samples collected from regular blood/platelet donors at our institution. The information on these donors is known, but it is up to the HLA lap to test the sample and match it to the donor's record.

To my knowledge, they have never failed to identify a sample...


Tannat

[Hazell B]

Could you post the name of the show and network, Hazell?
Probably won't cross the pond in any form..




It's some general newsy show and I think it's already been on earlier this evening, sorry. Forgot about it, to be honest :mark:

Here we've got labs that handle masses of stuff and I'm sure they do a great job - but they can't handle about 90% of what the TV shows like CSI use in story lines. For example my old Land Rover was broken in to and covered in oily finger prints from bonnet to back door, inside and out. When SOCO (we have Scenes of Crime Officers) called me to ask about coming to lift prints it was already two days after the crime had been reported and it had rained. The prints are also very tough to lift if oily, the SOCO woman told me. So they didn't bother coming and I didn't bother wasting their time.

When a horsebox I owned vanished, they couldn't identify it from even very good, clear photos the man who built it had taken during it's build and spray. Even his fingerprints in the final paint finish weren't proof enough! I understand why, but the CSI people still have stories even more far fetched.

[suzy m]

It's 'Tonight with Trevor McDonald' on ITV and it's on now.

[Eki]

It's some general newsy show and I think it's already been on earlier this evening, sorry. Forgot about it, to be honest :mark:

Here we've got labs that handle masses of stuff and I'm sure they do a great job - but they can't handle about 90% of what the TV shows like CSI use in story lines. For example my old Land Rover was broken in to and covered in oily finger prints from bonnet to back door, inside and out. When SOCO (we have Scenes of Crime Officers) called me to ask about coming to lift prints it was already two days after the crime had been reported and it had rained. The prints are also very tough to lift if oily, the SOCO woman told me. So they didn't bother coming and I didn't bother wasting their time.

When a horsebox I owned vanished, they couldn't identify it from even very good, clear photos the man who built it had taken during it's build and spray. Even his fingerprints in the final paint finish weren't proof enough! I understand why, but the CSI people still have stories even more far fetched.
Maybe if Prince Charles was found murdered in your Land Rover after a hedge laying competition they'd enter the crime scene more quickly?

It would actually be intersting to see CSI Miami to solve the mystery of a vanished horsebox.

[Hazell B]

Maybe if Prince Charles was found murdered in your Land Rover after a hedge laying competition they'd enter the crime scene more quickly?

They're busy enough with more serious crime, I didn't mind them not rushing to a Land Rover that had actually been improved by would-be car jackers :p : They'd left me a new battery .....


It would actually be intersting to see CSI Miami to solve the mystery of a vanished horsebox.

They did one about a horse being used to smuggle drugs in her, erm, er, feminine area ;) It perfectly explained Castlicks Procedure (google is your friend!) and was based on a true case.

[Alexamateo]

They're busy enough with more serious crime, I didn't mind them not rushing to a Land Rover that had actually been improved by would-be car jackers :p : They'd left me a new battery .....

Your car jackers left you a new battery?....If that's so, you have so much more thoughtful criminals in England! :p :

[janneppi]

They're busy enough with more serious crime, I didn't mind them not rushing to a Land Rover that had actually been improved by would-be car jackers :p : They'd left me a new battery .....

Are you sure the battery wasn't stolen from someone elses car? :)

[Hazell B]

Are you sure the battery wasn't stolen from someone elses car? :)


It was almost brand new and from a tractor or JCB, so more costly than a mere car battery. I explained to them that it was probably also nicked, but they called back and said keep it as none had been reported stolen.

It's running my electric fences at the moment :D

[Rollo]

This week on CSI: Penrith:
We've already got a hard enough time trying to keep this station open and trying people to stop burning cars. How are we supposed to investigate anything let alone solve any crime?

Next week on CSI: Mt Druitt we take a further look at people breaking the terms of their AVOs.

[Eki]

It's running my electric fences at the moment :D
Have you installed that solar power system you were talking about?

[Hazell B]

Had solar power for the fences for about six or so years now, but not bought the whole yard set up yet. Wind power (you found me some sites, remember?) seems to be favourite at the moment. Just planted a load of laurels to hide the turbine's base ready for when we purchase it all.

Of course, wind turbines are highly attractive to thieves :(