Using TLS to map bullet trajectories in a crime scene

Obtaining accurate measurements when documenting crime scenes represents in most cases a very challenging task for Police investigators and forensic scientists. The availability of a 3D virtual representation of the crime site would allow to solve for a few issues that often affect investigations, like for instance inaccurate tape measurements, a global view of the environment, the need to go back to get other previously “missed” measurements, without which a plausible reconstruction of the incident dynamic could be compromised. In this paper we would like to investigate if and how terrestrial laser scanning technique can be profitably used to support Police investigators for crime scene reconstruction. Setting up a simulated environment, our research will try to answer to following questions: 1) Point clouds acquired by a TLS can be efficiently used by Police investigators to retrieve the same kind of measurements, normally required ?; 2) How much the geometry and the extent of a closed environment, as typically found in crime scenes, can affect the surveying capabilites of a TLS ?; 3) Compared to actual surveying technique, can TLS provide with a faster and reliable way for accident scene reconstruction?; 4) Can TLS provide a dataset with a LOD (Level of Detail) sufficient enough to map bullet trajectories?