4th Diversion -- Rebooting Forensics Post-Apocalypse

[L.J.Steele]

A diversion from digesting your BBQ this weekend.

I've been reading Dartnell's _The Knowledge_ on rebooting technology after an apocalypse. He does a nice job with things like agriculture, clothing, paper, and some materials science -- all important I grant you -- but says little about social organization and business. One assumes that there will still be bad guys (and gals) doing bad stuff and at some point a society will want to handle them in an organized way.

So what guidelines should one offer to help those a generation or two out from a pandemic to reboot forensics in general and prints in particular. Assume a pandemic, so large population loss, but no climate/infrastructure damage from the disaster itself. Without the population to support it, a good chuck of modern infrastructure is gone -- so what's key to reboot to catch the right bad guys and what do you need to do it. Even things like creating the right inks and papers for good impressions, the right materials for dusting for prints, and revising the old card files until computers come back.

[Pat]

One assumes that there will still be bad guys (and gals) doing bad stuff and at some point a society will want to handle them in an organized way.

I think if a pandemic that wiped out most of civilization, governments would collapse and with them, adherence to and enforcement of laws. Rather than a democratic form of large government, mankind would revert to small tribal groups with strong leaders. Power struggles would ensue and stronger leaders would grow in strength, while weaker leaders would fade away or perish. In those situations, I would think the leader would be the law and violations of tribal code would be dealt with at the discretion of the leader.

When an organized government with laws and a criminal justice system evolved again, I would think paper books would have survived. Forensic sciences that are dependent on instrumental analysis may take longer to revive because old instruments would probably be inoperable. However, fingerprints came into being with soot-based black powders and photography. I would think that fingerprint analysis and document analysis would be the first two forensic sciences to be resurrected as governments and law were restored.

[L.J.Steele]

There is that question of what happens during the period of small groups -- I think a period of essentially warlordism is likely, although not inevitable. I expect the military and State Dept have given much thought to rebooting or preserving civil society in massive crisis, tho not likely something on a global scale.

_The Knowledge_ suggests that microscopes aren't that difficult to make once you have the basic idea. Comparison microscopes might be a bit trickier. I'd hope the advances in arson investigation will have survived to avoid going down the dead ends of ideas that seem logical but aren't true. (Same for some other areas.)

What system for indexing prints for a reboot? Henry or is there something better that survivors unburdened by our habits and legacy systems might adopt?

[ER]

Simple magnifiers, ink, and paper would probably be the only necessary equipment to resume a tenprint system of identifying individuals. Latent print could begin again in its simplest form with fine carbon powder and brushes. Assuming books survive, survivors would only need to find books like the Fingerprint Sourcebook, Ashbaugh's book, or the FBI's green book to get the general idea. I think latents would be the first forensic science to return as it would provide the most probative information with the simplest equipment.

[kevin]

I am visualizing something along the lines of the Book of Eli only with the Science of Fingerprints instead of the bible...

[Tazman]

Think Kevin Costner in "The Postman."

[ER]

...and the only one who remembers the lost art is blind; constantly seeking an apprentice to learn the old ways...

[L.J.Steele]

A reboot book is one of the things _The Knowledge_ suggests, warning that much of the information fundamental to modern society is now wholly or mostly electronic, which isn't going to be accessible in a post-catastrophe world. In the event of disaster some of my early forensics treatises may become important -- tho it would help to annotate them for the stuff we used to thing was so that was wrong.

_The Poisoner's Handbook_ about the growth of the NYC medical examiner's office in the early 1920s probably gives some ideas about what one might be able to do in pathology with relatively basic equipment.

[Alan C]

If we have to go back to classifying fingerprint cards, I vote for Vucetich. Much simpler than Henry.