Webster Groves High School Shoe Outsole Database

BACKGROUND

Students in the Advanced Forensic Science Research course at Webster Groves High School (WGHS) in Missouri collect data and photographs of footwear at local Payless ShoeSource and Walmart stores. This information is edited and maintained in a database at the WGHS. They also send this information to the FBI Laboratory for inclusion in their outsole database, but this information is available to ANY law enforcement agency.

DATA

The data is collected twice a year in March and October. Each time, photographs are taken and information is collected on approximately 150 shoes at Payless and 150 shoes at Walmart. The outsole images are organized by store and year online. For each image, the following information is available: manufacturer, model name, model number, and date of collection. However, only the images are available online. Jeanette has requested that interested parties contact her to learn more information about these shoes. Jeanette also welcomes search requests if you have an unknown crime scene impression that you'd like her students to search. She and her students do not claim to be forensic footwear experts, but they enjoy the opportunity to offer their search services to the forensic community.

POINT OF CONTACT

Jeanette Hencker ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
Webster Groves High School
100 Selma Avenue St. Louis, MO 63119
(314) 918-4102

SHOE OUTSOLE DATABASE

Tread Typer

Tread Typer is a discussion board on the SWGTREAD Forum. This board is designed to assist practitioners with make/model determinations of questioned footwear and tire impressions. This is similar resource to the Wanted Page, which is maintained by the ENFSI Expert Working Group Marks. Post an image(s) of a questioned footwear or tire impression in hopes that another practitioner will be able to identify the make/brand and model of the shoe or tire, which COULD be the source of the impression.

SWGTREAD is not responsible for the accuracy of the responses on Tread Typer. It is the responsibility of the practitioner posting to Tread Typer to verify the information/images included in the responses. It is recommended that you consult with the evidence contributor and remove case-related information in/from the images prior to posting on this board.

In order to access Tread Typer, you must be a registrered as a Practitioner on the SWGTREAD Forum. Go to http://forum.swgtread.org and register. Then, access the Tread Typer board under the Practitioners' Forum.

NON-PRACTITIONERS

Non-practitioners are those individuals who collect footwear and tire impression evidence or investigate crimes which involve this type of evidence. Non-practitioners have not completed a formal laboratory training program in the examination of this type of evidence and they don't conduct comparisons, issue laboratory reports or testify as footwear/tire experts in courts of law.

For non-practitioners who are ineligible to access Tread Typer, contact your local forensic services provider for assistance regarding requests for make/model determinations. If additional assistance is needed, e-mail the point of contact.

POINT OF CONTACT

Brian McVicker ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Wanted Page

The Expert Working Group Marks (EWGM) is one of the forensic science working groups of the European Network of Forensic Science Institute (ENFSI). This working group covers examinations in a wide range of disciplines including toolmarks, shoeprints, tire marks, barefeet, lock and key examinations, manufacturing marks and other related topics.

The Working Group Marks maintains the Wanted page which is meant for fellow examiners' questions. Most of the questions deal with identifications of a brand name for the shoeprint found at the crime scene.

SoleMate

The latest edition of 'SoleMate', Foster + Freeman's footwear database, contains details of over 24,000 sports, work and casual footwear. Its purpose is to identify footwear from prints recovered from scenes of crime and it may be used as a stand alone system or with SICAR^®6, the company's footwear evidence management system.

Each record in SoleMate contains the footwear's manufacturer, the manufacturer's reference for that item, the date of its release on to the market, an image or off-set print of the sole, several pictorial images of the footwear's uppers to aid recognition, and a set of pattern feature codes that facilitate search and match operations. Where different manufacturers have used the same sole unit (a common practice), all relevant SoleMate records are linked, to allow the operator to consider all of the footwear that might have been responsible for the crime scene print.

To use the database, the scene of crime footwear print is first assigned a set of pattern feature codes, a simple procedure that requires the operator to identify a number of elemental pattern features, such as circles, diamonds, zigzags, curves, blocks etc. As there are a variety within each type, a number of options are presented, as images, for the operator to select the best match. The codes assigned to these pattern features form the basis of the database search. The results of a search are then presented in descending order of pattern correlation for the operator to examine visually.

SoleMate is continually updated and distributed to subscribers every three months on DVD.

Treadmark

Treadmark is a most valuable tool in managing footwear evidence. It provides for your organization a central database of footmarks left at crime scenes, and images of footwear taken from prisoners. The database is accessible to all those who have an interest in footwear evidence from their own personal computer.

Calibrated images of footmarks can easily be entered by crime scene investigators. Custody officers have an easy means of taking images of the soles of the shoes taken from suspects. Footwear expert examiners can process the images – identifying the pattern code, marking up damage and searching the database to make scene to scene and scene to suspect links. Using the Treadmark interface these links are added to a ‘Crime Series’ which in turn form the basis of valuable intelligence reports.

The Treadmark system is developed and marketed by CSI Equipment Ltd and is available here on a free trial basis. Please register your organization. Once registered you will be able to download the Treadmark software and connect to your own area in the online Treadmark database. The trial license is for 3 months. The one who registers automatically becomes the Treadmark system administrator and can add more users and manage their permissions. The free license only allows for 2 ‘power users’ – those able to process images and search the database. There is no limit to the number of other users of the system such as custody officers and crime scene investigators who use the system to add images and data.

After your free license expires you can obtain a full license and continue to use the on-line database or have a database installed on your own organization’s internal computer network.