• @Agent641@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The trope of chalk outlines around bodies was never a real thing that cops did.

    It was invented by Hollywood in the 50s to suggest the presence of a corpse or murder without showing a corpse onscreen, which would have caused the show to be classified out of its desired classification or be censored.

    Cops never did that because it would contaminate the scene and wasn’t actually useful to them

    • IninewCrow
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      333 days ago

      Bucket of white paint … just throw a few gallons over the body … instant outline

      • @Okokimup@lemmy.world
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        42 days ago

        That’s so stupid. Just gently tip a bucket around the edges of the body, you’ll waste a lot less paint.

        • @Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          12 days ago

          I’m not gonna lie, if I had to get this done and had limited options available (e.g I just have the bucket of paint), I’d give that method the old college try. Depending how desperate I am, I might just splash the paint around a bit with my fingers as I pour it.

        • @SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Chalk dust would just settle, any hair or dirt or otherwise from the aerosol could be moved pretty far away.

          Also, dustless chalk is thing as well…

        • @logicbomb@lemmy.world
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          23 days ago

          I’d expect that with the zillions of crime scene photographs taken, the need to use chalk to outline the body is lessened, and simultaneously, with more advanced forensic techniques, the danger that chalk would contaminate evidence is increased.

          In modern crime dramas, I don’t recall seeing chalk outlines around bodies, but around other evidence like bullet casings, presumably because they might roll somewhere. If that’s true, then they’d still bring chalk along.

      • @DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I think they tend to place a device for scale, then take multiple photos. That answers most questions, and they can recreate the scene/positions from those photos and videos.

        I imagine some places are even doing 3D photogrammetric scans - digital scans of crime scenes that are automatically receated in a 3D model with accurate textures. This technology is after all already being used by game developers and other industries.

  • OfCourseNot
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    173 days ago

    Fun fact: it’s not chalk (at least in Spain). I had to clean these marks, not from a corpse (the guy didn’t died) but from the blood splashes and bullet holes, and I had to use solvent to take them out, the industrial cleaning products did nothing.