INTER/MICRO-2003

http://www.mcri.org/program2003.html

BATCH-TO-BATCH DIFFERENTIATION OF AUTOMOBILE FINISH SYSTEMS

Chris S. Palenik, Microtrace and Wilfied Stoecklein, Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden, Germany

The usefulness of forensic automotive paint evidence has resulted in the comprehensive study of all aspects of paint identification including analytical techniques, systematic identification schemes, and the development of databases that include tens of thousands of paint samples. Despite this work, many questions regarding the statistical significance of paint evidence remain. In particular, what is the significance of a match when dealing with mass-produced products, and how many examinations must be carried out before two samples can said to be a match? Most importantly, how many vehicles produced by one manufacturer and painted in the same color can be distinguished? These results demonstrate the specificity that automobile paint evidence can provide given a broad spectrum of properly applied analytical techniques.