Last Day

Today is my last day. I gave my DTR to our supervisor, I completed every little detail during this day. Everything turned out fine(i mean the whole experience), but before I went home, I did a little task.

I stamped the papers(macro-etching certificates, lots of them!). After that, I was all set and ready to go.

Alone

Today, May 25, 2007, is my first day alone. OK, it was rather interesting though. There's this thing that's called a bullet recovery box. It is where guns are being test fired in order to check the bullet for grooves under a microscope. Policemen use this box(although its shape is really cylindrical, I wonder why it's called a bullet recovery box. It should be called a bullet recovery cylinder or something, but definitely not box!), OK, policemen use this box for them to recover the bullet in(maybe not perfect condition) but really close to that. We then recover the bullet and check the grooves whether they match with the bullets found in the crime scene.

I also had a look at several different bullets. They differ in their diameter. Shotgun shells have nine(9) pellets. A magnum bullet has more gun powder than the usual bullets, and a 50mm machine gun can cut a person in two(2).

How Does the Firearms Work?

First thing to do is to feed the weapon with bullets. We have two types of feeding: manual and mechanical feeding. In manual feeding, you feed the bullet directly into the weapon while in mechanical feeding, you feed it indirectly with the use of a magazine. Second is the chambering. The chambering of bullets. Next, we have the locking. The locking of the weapon would force it not to fire. Firing is the most important part because a weapon is primarily made for this sole purpose. Then, we have the unlocking which allows the weapon to fire. We also have the extracting of bullets, used bullets. The ones that were already fired. Closely after extracting is the ejecting of the bullet. It is where the bullet is flipped off from the weapon. Last is the cocking. It is were you load the bullet so it could be fired.

Checking for Nitrates

Today, May 21, 2007, our first day together alone with Miss Cuadra and without Miss Gucor. OK, my guess was right. We inspected the particles we got from the cotton swabbing thing whether there is presence of gun powder nitrates. We used DPA or diphenylamine and the results were rather stunning. All four guns(because we cotton swabbed for of them) showed positive signs of gun powder nitrates, and therefore, we can conclude that the weapon was fired. But as I said, this test is corroborative because of some important reasons.

Could Be the Luckiest Day Ever

Today, May 19, 2007, marks another milestone in my SSIP days. I got a job, for real! With real money and real work.

I was all alone, as usual during weekends, and we were supposed to have a general cleaning(must be the very reason why Miss Cuadra didn't show up). Well, I was supposed to clean up the whole place(not the whole barracks, just the crime lab) but then, something weird but wonderful happened!

OK, I was hired as a text whatever(but it doesn't matter! What matters is that I got P300 worth of cellphone load and a P200 salary). Talk about lucky! I must be one when they're not around!

P.S I didn't have to clean the whole wretched place after all!

Last Wednesday May16,2007, Sir Florentino lectured us about How firearms work. He also enumerated the steps in how a firearms work. They are Feeding, Chambering, Locking, Firing, Unlocking, Extracting, Ejecting and Coking. He taught us all about the steps.

Today, Friday, May 18,2007, I and Mark Carlo are the only one left to report in the agency. We had observed fingerprints in a lens. We had seen the whirls and parts of the fingerprints. We also had observed Sir Edgardo when he got the fingerprints of two pulis applicants.

Posted by: Faye

Swabbing of Cotton

My apologies for I can't think of a better title. Okay, earlier this morning, we went to the Hall of Justice. We attended a hearing because our supervisor, the person who supervises us, was the witness.

Later in the afternoon, we took some pictures then performed the cotton swabbing or swabbing of cotton(whatever that is), then we took some more pictures.

Cotton swabbing or swabbing of cotton(whatever that is again) is one of the simplest things we learned in the history of our crime lab days. All you have to do is to clean or swab the gun with cotton. That simple!

The main purpose of this is to learn whether the weapon was fired or not fired by checking the cotton(with the gun powder nitrates presumably) by using DPA or diphenylamine to the cotton sample.