National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1193 - 1123 Hard Work

Jiang Yuan made a full round inside the park, and then walked along a few roads outside the park again.

Qiu Li insisted on following, and when her legs turned to jelly from walking straight, she instinctively wanted to give up. Then she saw the black-haired, long-striding female Ph.D. student briskly walking, which renewed her strength.

As they walked further, Qiu Li began to feel happy. Since she succeeded in passing the civil service exam, she rarely felt the joy of working hard and breaking through her limits.

Sometimes, when you have been idle for too long, and lack neither money nor burdens, you eat what you want, play as you wish, go where you please... after that, even just finding a direction to strive for feels precious.

"That’s about it," Jiang Yuan said while looking around, instructing the Luojin City Bureau’s criminal police to assist in collecting surveillance footage.

There are quite a few surveillance cameras around, those built by public institutions just need coordination, but private cameras are actually more numerous. Cameras in shops, malls, parking lots, and various public and private units have footing, but those on trams or private residences are much more troublesome to locate, though they are all surveillance cameras and should be equal.

The most important thing is, of course, the task force is well-staffed and can afford this surplus of manpower.

Watching other police officers search shop by shop along the street, Jiang Yuan turned to Pang Jidong and said, "Let’s head to the Image Reconnaissance Brigade first. Bring along the collected footage for synchronization, see if we can find the murderer’s vehicle used to transport the body."

At the film city, moving a body a few hundred meters is already very exaggerated, moving it out of this park would be too exhausting. It’s an impossible task with mere human power, so a vehicle must be involved.

A criminal policeman accompanying Pang Jidong, having followed all the way, couldn’t help but interject, "It might not be transporting a body. If the victim was threatened, they could have walked out with the killer. In that case, they would have more route choices..."

"Impossible," Jiang Yuan immediately denied it, realizing his tone was a bit stiff, he continued, "The pollen on the victim is layered, such as a large amount of clover pollen and corresponding pollen maps, indicating he encountered trouble in this park. If he could normally contact the outside world, he should have more varieties of pollen on him..."

To clarify, Jiang Yuan reorganized his words, saying, "The pollen analysis on the victim basically confirms he was murdered in the park and the body was carried out."

"Then we can look for regular park-goers, see if anyone saw someone carrying a body or carrying a person." Pang Jidong picked up the topic, offering a suggestion that wasn’t quite a suggestion.

Jiang Yuan nodded, "We can ask around, let’s go, head to the Image Reconnaissance Brigade first."

Interview-based investigations, despite their uncertainty, have solved many cases. This skill pertains to the police craft, and continuing it is definitely feasible.

However, even if a suspect emerges through interviews, it requires the follow-up cooperation of Criminal Science technicians. For instance, identifying the killer through park surveillance cameras, if the killer avoided all the park cameras, it might require sketch artists to draw the killer’s likeness.

Or, use interviews to reduce the workload for criminal police, like pinpointing the killer’s direction of travel, knowing which way they went might aid the investigation.

But given the current abundant resources, the task force’s demand in this area isn’t strong.

Even if interviewing park walkers, seniors, or dog owners might reveal some information, the task force still leans towards more comprehensive investigations.

For Jiang Yuan specifically, although the park cameras are inadequate, vehicle checkpoints outside the park are complete.

This means any vehicle leaving the park is likely captured by cameras. frёeωebɳovel.com

This configuration is common in provincial capital cities now.

People might not take usual routes, but vehicle lanes are few. With an Image Investigation team, sorting city cameras slightly doesn’t add much cost. Next comes the photo-taking. With today’s technology, storage cost is no longer a concern for the police force.

Jiang Yuan issued orders, Mu Zhiyang made a couple of sounds on the walkie-talkie, and soon a Coaster stopped by.

One by one, Jiang Yuan and others boarded, with Qiu Li hurrying to join.

Mu Zhiyang hesitated, reaching out to block the door, "You’re from the park management, no need to follow us."

Qiao Shengli glanced and smiled slightly, flicking her long, straight hair.

Qiu Li felt her chest was about to explode, fervent with adrenaline, and said intelligently, "Aren’t you going to check surveillance around the park? I’m familiar with the park surroundings, I’ve walked these roads often and been involved in the city’s management department transformation..."

This last qualification caused Jiang Yuan to raise an eyebrow, "Let her come up then."

Jiang Yuan agreed, so naturally, others had nothing more to say.

Luojin City Image Reconnaissance Brigade.

On the screens, large and small up front, dozens of surveillance videos played simultaneously, Jiang Yuan...

Jiang Yuan naturally couldn’t keep up.

But the police’s greatest difference from criminals is their numbers.

Even a police officer like Jiang Yuan with extraordinary individual skills wouldn’t go solo. In fact, Jiang Yuan’s basic setup for solving a case now is a cold case squad of over 30 specialized police academy graduates with more than five years of experience, a team of several old veteran Ningtai County criminal police, and a local criminal police squad of around 20, alongside both local Criminal Science and Technology Centers.

And this is just standby force. When needed, Jiang Yuan frequently mobilizes official police forces counted in the hundreds, equipped with armed long-gunmen, and logistics including vehicles and even private aircraft, incurring incalculable costs.

Even the most strategically adept Liu Jinghui, considers bringing a criminal police squad foundational.

Jiang Yuan now wouldn’t be courteous with criminal suspects.

All officers in the Image Reconnaissance Brigade who were home, were assigned one or several screens, working hard to review them.

Admittedly, watching surveillance videos entails numerous viewing techniques, especially wide-angle surveillance, where distortion varies with positions, requiring time to get accustomed to for better identification.

Jiang Yuan continuously participated in video synchronization.

This is where Image Investigation becomes tricky: one camera’s view is limited, but another might not connect seamlessly, or even if it does, accurately transferring between cameras requires some mental effort.

Here, without a film editor’s help, many image changes appear like montage.

The criminal police from the Image Investigation Brigade hope to see the murderers carrying or concealing Zhang Lei’s body, but after watching hours of surveillance following Zhang Lei’s appearance, they found no such footage.

Everyone’s gaze inevitably turned to Jiang Yuan.

"Time-wise, the killer killed Zhang Lei and should be driving straight to Lanyue City. They should take about a day on the road. However, the investigation in Lanyue City found that only a few cars from Baijiang Province arrived there," Jiang Yuan looked at Liu Jinghui, "Thus, the killer likely switched vehicles?"

"They may also have switched license plates," Liu Jinghui said, "A swapped plate car is more convenient, no need for moving bodies. Swapping cars requires some preparation, a bit bothersome."

"If the plate was well cloned, even cloning their own car’s plate, it becomes nearly untraceable," said the Image Investigation Brigade Chief. The brigade often handles such cases and is experienced.

Liu Jinghui nodded, "Then do some hard work, only look at car models and colors, not plates, see how many cars overlap between Lanyue City Film and Television City and the park in Luo Jin City. We can even ignore color, just look at model..."

"Then there will be many overlaps," the Brigade Chief counted on his fingers, "Road trip staples like Japanese-made Accord, Camry, Teana, plus the Jetta, Bora, Passat... oh, and Wuling Hongguang... these models dominate, and distinguishing generations of models given these lookalike cars, it adds too much workload... otherwise, scan with software first, see if anything pops up directly."

"Software scanning is fine too," Liu Jinghui didn’t completely dismiss it.

The Image Investigation software suite is vast, but all built on image reading, therefore accuracy is never high. It suffices for general security enforcement but uneasy for solving homicide cases.

Jiang Yuan, watching the constantly changing surveillance video, slowly said, "Speaking of hard work, how about this, pull out all vehicles appearing within 12 hours after Zhang Lei’s appearance and see if any exited the city. Having killed someone, the killer with a mode of transport shouldn’t certainly switch vehicles."

"Not necessarily," Liu Jinghui opposed earnestly, "Maybe the murder was committed with an electric car, switching to a fuel car for highway driving is possible."

Qiu Li, listening with wide eyes nearby, couldn’t help but speak up seeing Liu Jinghui refute Jiang Yuan, "If neither works, you have so many people, try all methods then."

"Do you know trying them all costs money, and requires people?" Liu Jinghui chuckled.

Qiu Li pouted, "I don’t care about all that; all I want are results."

Liu Jinghui paused, then said, "This young lady, your thinking is exactly like our leader’s."