LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council last week got to see a preview of state-of-the-art technology that a partnership of local law enforcement agencies is bringing to the city and the county.

Lakeport Police Officer Michael Sobieraj and Officer Angie Bell gave the presentation to the council at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

In April, the Board of Supervisors approved District Attorney Don Anderson's request to purchase a three-dimensional Faro crime scene scanner at a cost of $66,000.

Anderson said the equipment would give his department – as well as cooperating local agencies – the ability to create precise 3D video reenactments of crime scenes.

He said those visually accurate recreations of the crimes would show the scenes as they appear to victims, witnesses and defendants.

The new scanning equipment is available not just to the District Attorney's Office but also to the Clearlake Police Department, Lakeport Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Sobieraj told the council last week.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen also explained during the meeting that his department and the Clearlake Police Department  contributed $15,000 toward the purchase from funds they had received from the Board of State and Community Corrections for felony enforcement.

Each of the involved agencies is having selected officers trained in using the equipment. For Lakeport Police, the trainees are Sobieraj and Bell, who took two days of training on the program. The District Attorney's Office also has dedicated one of its investigators to working with the scanner.

In addition to recreating crime scenes, Sobieraj said the equipment also will be used to investigate major accidents and other important incidents.

He showed a detailed nighttime scan of Park Street, outside of City Hall, taken with the equipment. He said it scans 365 degrees around, 180 degrees up and 80 degrees down. It then takes the photos and integrates them.

Sobieraj and Bell also showed scans of a City Hall conference room and the council chambers, complete with items – including a mannequin – placed around the rooms to make them look like crime scenes. He then showed how each piece of evidence could be documented in the program.

“There's infinite possibilities with this system,” said Sobieraj.

The equipment also has construction-related uses; it can scan buildings to track where pipes, utilities and other fixtures are located, he said.

“We're very lucky to be able to have this technology,” Sobieraj said.

Sobieraj added, “It's going to be a great tool of us to use, and we're excited about it.”

Anderson, who attended the meeting, said the program also allows the addition of animated figures in order to fully recreate scenes for juries.

He said one agency that uses the program reenacted a pursuit, with the resulting reconstruction looking like the incident was being viewed by a helicopter. Similarly, aerial views can be added to crime scenes.

While the learning process on the equipment is still under way for local law enforcement, Anderson said the scanner already is being put to work in a case involving the attempted murder of a police officer in Clearlake.

Mayor Kenny Parlet asked if they were seeing the last of chalk lines on carpet at crime scenes.

Sobieraj confirmed that the new scanning equipment was making chalk lines obsolete.

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