NFI anniversary year
The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In 1999, the Forensic Laboratory and the Laboratory for Forensic Pathology were merged to form what is now the NFI, but its history goes back even further: the Forensic Laboratory was founded in 1945. That is almost 80 years ago! The NFI is organising various activities to mark the anniversary. For instance, on 12 and 13 April there will be a public event at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the ‘Murder Mystery Weekend at the Museum’, while on 6 March, King Willem-Alexander will pay a working visit to the institute. He will follow in the footsteps of a forensic examiner and will attempt to solve a fictitious murder case with the help of NFI staff. Will he manage to establish the truth?
One of the oldest weapons in the fight against crime is the fingerprint. The fact that fingerprints can differentiate an individual from countless others was discovered two thousand years ago. Even the fingerprints of identical twins differ! In the 19th century, the idea emerged to use fingerprints found at a crime scene to identify the perpetrator(s). Thanks to the pioneering work of Argentine detective Juan Vucetich, who was the first to set up a working index system for fingerprints, the first murder solved with the help of fingerprint evidence occurred in 1892. The case involved the murder of several children of the Rojas family. A family drama. The mother identified a man as the perpetrator, but it eventually transpired that she had committed the murders herself because her new lover didn’t want children.
A fingerprint was first accepted as evidence in a Dutch criminal case in 1911. Fingerprints are used in forensic investigations to this day. Using a scientifically based method, the NFI is now even able to provide evidence in criminal cases with very minimal fingerprint traces.
Founding of Forensic Laboratory
Forensic science developed at the start of the 20th century. From that time onwards, more and more criminals were brought to book with the help of forensic science. Toxicology – the study of poisons – had been developed in the previous century. Around 1900, research into blood groups began. Thanks to developments in the field of microscopy, microtraces, such as tiny scratches, glass splinters, fibres and hairs, were increasingly used to solve crimes. In that era, the Netherlands was not leading the way in the field of forensic science. There were only a handful of forensic police experts. C.J. van Ledden Hulsebosch is one of the best known.
Our neighbouring countries already had forensic laboratories by the time, shortly after the Second World War, the then 36-year-old forensic investigator Dr W. Froentjes was tasked with setting up a forensic laboratory for the Netherlands.
The new laboratory was set up in the refectory of a former monastery on Raamweg in The Hague. The first case investigated by Froentjes in 1946 was widely reported by the media worldwide. It involved examining paintings by master forger Han van Meegeren. Van Meegeren made paintings purporting to be by famous 17th-century artists such as Johannes Vermeer. They were sold for huge sums. The suspect had already admitted to making the forgeries, but his statement still had to be corroborated. The new lab managed to do so, and so its reputation was made.
Growth
In the years that followed, more and more assignments were received and the workforce grew. Pathologist J. Zeldenrust performed the forensic post-mortems, while the lab also recruited a chemist and pharmacologist. In 1951, it had a staff of 12, who between them tackled 2100 cases. In the same year, following the British model, the lab was split into a Forensic Science Laboratory and a Forensic Medical Laboratory, later renamed the Laboratory for Forensic Pathology.
Over the subsequent decades, the lab continued to grow. Scientific methods became more refined, microscopes got better and better and the equipment became increasingly sensitive. Alongside the ordinary microscope there was also the comparison microscope. This enabled two objects to be compared with one another, for example cartridge cases left behind after a shooting incident. An electron microscope can achieve a magnification of more than a hundred thousand times. In order to make the invisible visible, researchers made use of ultraviolet, infrared and x-rays. The equipment was becoming ever more sensitive and was able to reveal minimal concentrations of a substance, with the most important techniques being chromatography and spectrometry. The former is a method of separating mixtures into their constituent parts, while the latter is a method used to demonstrate the presence of substances and the quantities in which they are present.
New research areas
By 1973, the two laboratories employed 60 people. The building on Raamweg was full to the rafters, so the two laboratories moved to a complex of buildings on Volmerlaan in Rijswijk. Growth and changes continued over the subsequent years. Technology was updated and research methods continually improved, and more and more research areas were added.
For instance, in the late 80s, DNA analysis became a specialism. The computer research department started life in 1992 as part of the handwriting investigation department, but it quickly grew into a separate department and ultimately into an entire division. More and more buildings were also added to the Volmerlaan site. Portakabins were installed in the car park to accommodate the growing workforce. In 1999, the Forensic Laboratory and the Laboratory for Forensic Pathology were brought back together to form a single institute: the NFI!
The NFI
The past 25 years have also been marked by growth and change. In 2004, the NFI moved into a new building on Laan van Ypenburg in The Hague. By then, it had nearly 350 staff members. Queen Beatrix opened the building in 2005.
Developments in the field of forensic analysis continue. We are able to do more and more with less trace evidence, ever more quickly. Take DNA analysis for example: in 1999, a comparison with the DNA database – which at that time had only recently been set up – immediately resulted in a breakthrough in the investigation of the rape and murder of 13-year-old Sybine Jansons. The NFI has since been involved in large-scale identification investigations, for example following the flight MH17 disaster.
In 2019, the development and launch of the DNAxs expert system heralded a new era for DNA. This system enables maximum information to be obtained from DNA trace evidence. An important spin-off of DNAxs is the Fast ID Line set up in 2021, which automates DNA analysis from A to Z. The police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) are now informed whether or not a match has been found within just three days. Thanks to the ongoing development of the DNAxs software, large quantities of DNA data can now be compared between cases in order to link different cases together, enabling the Public Prosecution Service and the police to shed light on criminal networks.
Databases
The DNA database is the best known of the NFI’s databases. The NFI has also set up reference databases for other fields of expertise in recent decades, for example for glass, firearms, etc. These databases enable the evidentiary value of trace evidence to be calculated even more accurately, and the trace evidence in the databases can link different cases together.
In partnership with the police and the Public Prosecution Service, the NFI is developing the NFiDENT drugs analysis system in order to automatically identify different types of drugs.The system will enable the NFI to send its expert reports to the police within 24 hours. It is a successful example of remote forensics, made possible by user-friendly analysis equipment that has made research methods previously only available at highly advanced laboratories more widely accessible. The drugs no longer have to be brought to the NFI, saving time and money.
Digital developments
The digital technology department was set up in the last century in response to the advent of computers and electronic diaries. These devices were popular with criminals because they were password-protected, which meant investigators could not easily access the data. In important investigations, the police had to fly to Japan to have diaries unlocked in the factory. This soon became unnecessary once investigators at the NFI were able to crack the passwords. Electronic diaries were followed by mobile phones: when security was added to those devices, the NFI devised methods to unlock them too. Last year, the NFI was awarded the Anti-Fraud Award because it has been able to crack even the latest crypto phones with the help of the European EXFILES project. The NFI’s digital search engine Hansken has become an indispensable tool for searching large amounts of seized data. More and more national and international investigative agencies are using the application.
Looking ahead
Today, the NFI has 800 employees and we contribute to tens of thousands of cases every year. “Over the past a hundred years, science has enabled us to get ever hotter on suspects’ heels”, says Science and Technology Director Annemieke de Vries. “Whereas at the start of the last century, Dutch forensic science was lagging behind, we can now claim to be among the leaders.” Over the coming year, the NFI will be seeking to further increase and speed up the forensic science offering. Digitalisation, automation, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science offer many opportunities to do so, as well as to further improve that offering. The institute is committed to innovation and national and international cooperation. Alongside the NFI, there are now also commercial forensics suppliers to meet the extensive demand for forensic analysis.
“The field of forensic analysis remains in flux”, says CEO Marc Elsensohn of the NFI. “The past 80 years have been characterised by change, and I expect that to be no different in the years to come. Change has been the big constant throughout the years.” The NFI wants to become more flexible and agile in order to be able to respond to changing demands even more quickly. The NFI has nearly 40 research disciplines under one roof, which is unusual. It wants to automate simple investigations or outsource them to commercial parties while the institute itself focuses on complex and multidisciplinary cases, innovating investigations and transferring knowledge to the other actors in the criminal justice system.
AI and data-driven working
For example, it is expected that AI and data-driven working will further change the field of forensic analysis in the years to come. “With the large volumes of data available, we hopefully will be able to help solve crimes at an even earlier stage in the future and perhaps even predict them”, says De Vries. The NFI has built a computer model that can search ‘live’ chat messages for clues about drugs shipments or imminent liquidations. This has prevented murders and assaults and enabled drug shipments to be intercepted. Last year, it was revealed that the NFI and the Research and Data Centre (WODC) are to be assigned €24 million to develop an infrastructure for conducting scientific research with sensitive data over the coming four years. Together with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and SURF, the NFI is participating in the GPT-NL project to develop a Dutch language model that can be used in the field of forensic investigation.
Working visit
On 6 March, the King will visit a fictitious crime scene during his visit. After that, he will tour the various divisions of the NFI. “It is an honour for us to be able to welcome the King to our splendid institute”, says Elsensohn. Forensic examiners from different fields will explain their work and the institute’s most important innovations. What can the trace evidence tell us? Will the King manage to solve the fictitious murder case?
Sources used: The description of the history of the NFI up to 2004 draws on the book ‘Zo moet het gegaan zijn! Het werk van een forensisch onderzoeker’ (‘This is what must have happened! The work of a forensic investigator’) by Ben van der Have.