Crime

If you've watched even a single episode of CSI, you'll know how important it is to check suspects and crime scenes for gunshot residue (GSR). A new technique could make that task faster and easier than ever before, by causing GSR to glow green.

This 125-kg (276-lb) robotic ball looks – and acts – like it could've broken free from the Batpod. It's a self-balancing sphere that can chase down criminals at up to 35 km/h (22 mph) on land or water, and strike with a range of non-lethal weapons.

If you've ever watched CSI, you'll know that suspects often leave incriminating traces of their DNA behind at crime scenes. According to a recent study, however, the amount of that genetic material could also point to a person's guilt or innocence.

Even if a criminal wears gloves, their cast-off DNA may still be present in a room's air. A study suggests that if such material gets sucked up by an air conditioner, it could let investigators know if a suspect has or hasn't been in a certain room.

An experimental new forensic spray allows latent fingerprints to be made visible in just 10 seconds, plus it doesn't require the use of any messy powders. What it does incorporate, however, is a glowing protein that's obtained from jellyfish.

Sometimes, violent people rein in their aggressive behavior if they know they're being recorded on video. Whipping out your phone and filming them, however, may make things even worse. That's where the PhoneCam is intended to come in.

One of the more sinister functions of deepfake AI systems is the ability to replicate a person's voice, based on even just a short recording. A new software tool known as AntiFake, however, could help keep that from happening.

Although most of our clothes fold and crease with our bodies as we move, our shoes maintain the same shape and appearance pretty much all the time. With that fact in mind, scientists are now developing a method of catching criminals via shoe ID.

Lending new meaning to the phrase ‘cat burglar’, a single feline hair left at a crime scene can be traced back to an individual animal through a new method that can highlight a unique, rare genetic ‘fingerprint’. You could say it turns the cat into a rat.

With US car thefts up 25.1% since 2019, it's clear that high-tech key fob immobilizers aren't cutting the mustard. But this might: UMich researchers have created a charmingly low-tech anti-theft device that turns the whole car into a security keypad.

Even if someone's fingerprints are found on an incriminating document, that person may claim that they handled the blank paper before the criminal printed anything on it. A new technique, however, can now be used to check if that really was the case.

It's a sad fact that mass shootings have become a common occurrence in the US. Defense tech company Axon has announced what it says will be a new means of resolving such incidents quickly and relatively safely, using a drone equipped with a Taser.