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Davenport, Iowa, PD Uses 3D Scanner for Crime Scenes

This new scanner allows police officers to take in and measure a crime scene in 40 minutes to an hour, compared to the typical three to four hours.

Photographs of crime scenes may become a thing of the past as some police departments adopt new high-tech equipment: a 3-D laser scanner.

Police in Davenport, Iowa, have purchased the $71,000 Faro Focus 3D, which collects visual evidence that can be revisited later -- and even  be used in court rooms to illustrate a crime scene to jurors, WHBF-TV reported.

“It's going to help present what occurred at the crime scene to the jury to bring it more accurately, more vividly, to show all the points of evidence, it should help tremendously in that regard,” Scott County Attorney Mike Walton told WHBF.

Davenport police began using the scanner this summer and they now share the scanner with neighboring police departments need it in Bettendorf, Scott County, and Muscatine. The scanner was mostly paid for by a Scott County Regional Authority grant.

This new scanner also allows police to completely take in and measure a scene in 40 minutes to an hour, compared to the typical three to four hours, according to the WHBF news report. Learn more about the scanner here:



Main image courtesy of Shutterstock