Forensic Photographer Analyzes Evidence Of Fatal Hit And Run

This case involves a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a young pregnant woman. According to eyewitnesses, the driver was in a silver pickup truck and made a sharp right turn, striking the woman walking in the crosswalk. One eyewitness attempted to take a photograph of the driver’s license plate. Because the driver drove off so quickly, the photograph was blurry and required enhancing to be of any value. Counsel sought an expert forensic photographer to enhance the photograph and determine if enough pixels were present in the picture to accurately read the license plate number.

Question(s) For Expert Witness

1. Please describe your background in digital forensics.

2. How often do you enhance photographs as part of your work or consulting responsibilities?

Expert Witness Response E-126139

I am a certified and award-winning forensic photographer with 30+ years of experience. I have served as the department head of forensic photography at an engineering consulting company and completed a wide variety of forensic vision studies and image enhancements. The last project I worked on involved enhancing images recovered from a low-resolution camera at a bank cash center. The objective was to determine what could and could not be seen in the video frames. Before that, I worked on a study of the route a passenger might have taken through an airport concourse based on a reconstruction of images. Another case involved trying to enhance the view in a rear view mirror image of a car to determine if the license plate of the vehicle behind was legible.