Assessment of Advanced Metrologies for Forensic Fiber Examination

Oftentimes, crime laboratories do not have the staff or resources to assess new instrumentation. One goal of the STG is to discuss with forensic examiners the performance levels or improved discriminatory power that could be offered by techniques or instruments not currently available to them in their labs. Instrumentation currently slated to be evaluated includes Raman spectroscopy and confocal microscopy. By assessing these advanced metrologies for things like ease of use, quantitative ability, and discrimination of similar samples we can bring this information to the forensic community so they can make informed decisions when lobbying funds for new equipment. In addition, proposing the use of statistical assessments of chemical spectra and other data to draw conclusions, and the development of tools or algorithms to help with measurements is an on-going endeavor.