The most basic application of footwear impression evidence is linked cases, more data you have, the more important it is to solve crimes.
According to the state-and regional-level data from a Swiss intelligence database that was collected from six states during 2009–2011, Rossy reported the contributions of footwear relative to situational (contextual) information, DNA, and images in the detection of links generated using a regional Swisscrime intelligence database during the 2009–2011 period. His data illustrates the intelligence benefits of sharing data within a region (six states) versus using only the data generated by a single state. Contextual information contributed most to links at the state level (71%) with forensic evidence only providing 29% of the total links. When the data is expanded to the regional level (by looking across state lines), the results flip-flop; forensic evidence became very valuable contributing 75% of the links and context fell to 25%.Additionally, and of importance here, links generated using footwear increasedfrom 19% to 49% when going from a state to a region.
Reference: "U.S. NATIONAL FOOTWEAR DATABASE SYSTEM FEASIBILITYSTUDY" published by FBI in December 2021.
Several Challenges Facing the Application of Shoeprint Evidence
1. Collecting Every Shoeprint Evidence at Crime Scenes: The number of shoeprints collected is largely constrained by the application of shoeprint evidence. Without a comprehensive application system, the data collected will not be useful for solving cases, leading to a vicious cycle where the collection of shoeprint evidence decreases, and it may eventually cease altogether.
2. Building a Shared Shoeprint Database: Connecting cases through shoeprint evidence is one of the main applications, and this relies on big data. The more data available, the more clues can be generated for solving cases. Therefore, it is crucial not only to build a shoeprint database but also to ensure data sharing across regions, which is key to the application.
3. Verifying the Accuracy of Associated Shoeprint Data: Since the wear characteristics of each shoe are unique, every shoeprint is also unique. Associating cases depends on these identical wear characteristics. The key to verifying the accuracy of these associated data is finding the same wear characteristics in different shoeprints.
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