CRIME INVESTIGATION PRODUCTS FUEL ECONOMY

David Tobin demonstrated a video spectral comparator made by Foster and Freeman, Ltd. of Worcestershire, U.K. It is used by forensic scientists to examine documents for possible alteration.

Doug Peavey swears his barbecue sauce is the favorite among crime scene investigators.

"It does come from Kansas City," said Peavey, who charges $5.95 for a bottle of "Tracker's Sludge."But Peavey makes much more money by selling fingerprinting kits, evidence tape and counterfeit detection pens to law enforcement agencies all over the world."If someone makes an order of $150 or more, we throw in the sauce," said Peavey, president of Lynn Peavey Co.Peavey was in Cape Girardeau last week for a forensic scientist's convention, which brought in more than 200 crime experts from the Midwest and Southwest. He was one of 25 exhibitors promoting new criminal investigation tools.Although crime in the United States fuels a several billion dollar underground economy annually, money spent by law enforcement on evidence collection isn't great. Only 15,000 police agencies operate here, Peavey said.

"Not one of our products mean a billion dollars to us because this is such a small market," he said.The same is true for VRW Scientific Products, said sales representative Laura Smith. Its two-inch thick, hardbound catalogue for the medical industry overwhelms the company's 32-page forensic lab catalogue.Although VRW Scientific works with all law enforcement crime labs in the St. Louis area, its biggest customer by far is Monsanto, Smith said. "We make everything for labs, from the test tubes they use to the chairs they sit on," she said.VRW Scientific, based in Westchester, Penn., is a subsidiary of the German medical goods manufacturer Merck.Some investigations just cost too much for many law enforcement agencies to run, said Anthony Winston, a spokesman for LabCorp, based in Burlington, N.C. His company will perform DNA-based identification work on a contract basis for police agencies, he said.

A lot of our requests come from smaller county sheriff's departments without labs, or other state's labs that have a backlog," said Winston, who is a DNA lab supervisor for LabCorp.Costs vary for LabCorp services to law enforcement. A DNA test to determine paternity in a criminal case is $500. Forensic case reviews or consultations by their lab personnel is $150 an hour. To bring a forensic scientist to court to give expert testimony at a trial runs $1,200 a day plus expenses.Cape Girardeau County has used expert witnesses in two cases over the past year, said prosecuting attorney Morley Swingle. One involved handwriting analysis in a forgery trial, while the other defined effects of mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.More often, Cape Girardeau and 19 other Southeast Missouri counties use the services of the SEMO Crime Lab. All of the counties make an annual contribution to support the lab's work.

"When you look at something like the number of cups of urine they analyze and compare it to what we pay, it's a real bargain," Swingle said.Private attorneys are more likely to use independent labs, although defense lawyers can send their evidence to the SEMO Crime Lab at no cost."The reason why many of them don't is that you don't have to disclose your test results in court if you go to a private lab," he said.Many lab assignments come from businesses involved in lawsuits, Winston said."We get a hamburger bun or a coffee maker with blood on it, and they want us to run a sample to see if it's their employee's," he said.In spite of the high fees, forensic evidence doesn't pay well, Winston said."It's a high profile department, although it's a low money maker," he said. "We've appeared on shows like Oprah and 20/20, so that kind of keeps us going."Peavey's company, which started over 20 years ago selling resealable plastic bags, doesn't specialize in any service. The business is like a crime evidence super store, Peavey said.For fingerprinting, he offers several powders, dusters, computer systems and programs. He has silver nitrate for fingerprints on paper and cardboard, "crystal violet" for the sticky side of most tapes, and amindo black for blood-contaminated prints. A super glue is also available to develop textured, latent fingerprints."The only problem is I get some calls from people who don't know how to get their hands unstuck," Peavey said.