On 13th and 14th May 2019, Professor Fiona Brookman and Dr Helen Jones held the ‘Homicide Investigation and Forensic Science’ (HIFS) Symposium in Cardiff. The event followed on from a four-year collaborative study of the uses of forensic sciences and technologies in homicide investigation in Britain (funded by the Leverhulme Trust). The HIFS Symposium was attended by a select group of leading academics, practitioners and policy makers from across the UK and Europe, with expertise in the fields of homicide investigation, forensic science and digital technology. Over the one-and-a-half day event, delegates heard presentations concerning trust, mistrust and barriers to effective collaboration amongst detectives and scientists, the role of forensic science in the exoneration of innocent convicted individuals in the USA, the complexities of measuring the ‘value’ of forensic science, and the difficulties of retrieving and examining digital data. All of the presentations were followed by stimulating discussion sessions where the group identified pressing challenges in major crime investigation and forensic science provision and knowledge gaps. Plans are underway to collaborate with many of the academics and practitioners from across Europe who attended the Symposium and we are looking forward to developing our research with these new partners.
