NCJ Number
194850
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2002 Pages: 58,60-62,63
Date Published
2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article discusses crime scene diagramming software.
Abstract
Police officers across the country use professional drawing software to recreate crime and accident scenes. It is estimated that 50 percent of crime scene and accident diagrams in the United States are created with software drawing tools. These tools include: (1) AutoCAD from Autodesk for true three-dimensional modeling; (2) Microsoft’s Visio for creating quick sketches and layouts; (3) AutoSketch from Autodesk, a reasonably priced program that includes user-friendly functions; and (4) The Crime Zone from The CAD Zone, designed specifically for law enforcement work. In addition to recreating crime and accident scenes, diagramming software is used in planning emergency escape routes for motorcades, accident reconstruction, organizing sequences of events, and developing organizational trees that show the relationships of various suspects implicated in a crime. The article concludes that saving time, diagramming accurately and efficiently, and projecting professionalism to a jury are all vital reasons for using crime scene drawing technology. Figures