Micro traces can be extracted. DNA amplification has made considerable progress in identifying a genetic profile. HOCINE ROUAGDIA
On an innocuous object, experts can uncover unsuspected traces. Here a fingerprint HOCINE ROUAGDIA
Le laboratoire des TIC est intégré au groupement de gendarmerie. HOCINE ROUAGDIA
Le groupement du Gard dispose d'un laboratoire de police scientifique intégré. HOCINE ROUAGDIA
Le camion est un mini-labo qui permet de révéler des traces.
Criminal identification technicians manage to make objects, blood stains, fingerprints or DNA traces talk even in extreme conditions. They have opened the doors of their laboratory.
Shot dead, suspected murder at home, suspicious death, the Gard ICTs witness mind-blowing scenes. But they are equipped with ultra-efficient tools. The end of the perfect crime ? In any case, this is a strong trend in the gendarmerie, which has a laboratory integrated into the Gard group. The gendarmes' crime experts ? Criminal identification technicians (TIC) whose blue truck with “criminal identification gendarmerie” written in blue can sometimes be seen are deployed on the most serious cases to collect as many clues as possible that will allow a suspect to be identified and ultimately brought to trial.
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Murders, fires, robberies
The TIC of Gard work in principle on the hottest or most complex cases. Because at the local level, each company has teams that can take simple samples in a burglary case. If it is a case without any particularities, the samples are even taken by the local gendarmerie brigade. If on the other hand, the case concerns the robbery of an arms factory or a jewelry factory with major damages, the group's experts are dispatched to the scene. In criminal matters, “It is systematically the teams of the group that are deployed”, notes Colonel Emmanuel Casso who commands the Gard gendarmerie group.
War machine
As soon as the protocol is triggered, a real war machine is set in motion with gendarmes who have the status of judicial police officer (OPJ) and who have perfect knowledge of the terrain. Pascal Sperandio, who is about to retire, has spent 23 years scouring crime scenes and has an ultra-sharp eye. And of course, he scrupulously analyzes the crime scenes and deploys very precise protocols with his colleague Laurent. First, freeze the scene, make sure that no one has polluted the site, take photos and then, the sampling part is implemented. This is how they take fingerprints and DNA samples. “One of the big developments is undoubtedly in genetics”.
DNA amplification allows suspects to be identified with micro-traces
Indeed, DNA sequencing and amplification allow us to work on very small quantities of biological traces. “Now with micro-traces, it is possible to extract a DNA profile. 20 years ago, you needed a trace of blood, for example from a 2 euro coin, today, a very small trace or even a micro trace of a millimeter or less, you can extract a profile because the equipment has evolved considerably” , explains Pascal Sperandio. The techniques have evolved considerably and make it possible to extract DNA from water and even from burnt supports. Techniques that remain fairly secret to prevent drug traffickers in particular from adapting their modus operandi. Because if the police continue to face “generalist” crime, areas labeled rural no longer escape settling scores with weapons of war or with bodies burned in vehicles. Also, while they readily acknowledge that they can extract DNA traces even underwater or on a charred vehicle, the details of their recipes remain secret.
A lab that allows exchanges with Interpol
The organization of the gendarmerie makes it possible to graduate the scientific response according to the seriousness of a case. Thus, at the level of the gendarmerie brigades or brigade communities, there is a first level, “the local criminal identification technicians, then at the departmental level, there are the criminal identification technicians and then at the national level, there is the criminal research institute of the national gendarmerie (IRCGN)”, notes Colonel Casso. About 20 years ago, a sort of “Decentralization took place in the gendarmerie to relieve the IRCGN, which had overburdened some departments. It is in this sense that platforms were created at the departmental level and that a new three-level criminalistic chain was created with its own actors”, says Pascal Sperandio, one of the best forensic experts in the south of France. The standardization of protocols allows the Gard gendarmes to speak with the same standards, the same codes as their Parisian or Bordeaux colleagues or even exchange with private laboratories working on a case. Better ? The Gard laboratory is ISO 1725 certified and has technology that allows the transmission and exchange of standardized data throughout Europe. In concrete terms, the DNA profile or fingerprint of a killer can be transmitted in one click to Madrid or Berlin and vice versa. The standardization of our techniques “facilitates European cooperation with structures such as Interpol or Europol”, they add at the Gard grouping.
The next revolution (which is already underway) is that of artificial intelligence, which greatly facilitates the profiling of suspects and putting into perspective the operating mode, locations, telephony, facial recognition, biometrics, they explain at the grouping's lab where activity remains very high. For example, ICTs were called upon in 2023 on 304 crime or offence scenes and received 104 requisitions. That is to say, they are responsible for analyzing seals to try to find a DNA trace or a fingerprint for example.
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