How to share and utilise expertise in a police forensic department through externalisation and mutualisation |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa;2. Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa;1. School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;2. University of Québec at Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada;3. Laboratoire de recherche en criminalistique, Trois-Rivières, Canada;1. UCL Department of Security and Crime Science, 35 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, UK;2. UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences, 35 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, UK;1. Department of Forensic Biology, Oslo University Hospital, Norway;2. Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;3. University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine, Oslo, Norway |
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| Abstract: | The technique of fire investigation is a forensic domain in which expertise and analogies play a central role. To learn how fire investigators use these analogies to support their work, we conducted an ethnographic study in a Swiss forensic police department. To propose a suitable knowledge-management strategy, we also evaluated the knowledge conservation and sharing within the department. Our results highlighted that actionable knowledge is registered mainly in the investigators’ memories of a few, very experienced, individuals. Without experience with fire-incident investigations, an agent generally requires help from a more experienced colleague, who will then use his memory to find a similar case, which can contribute to the solution of the ongoing one. The research also established that knowledge is exchanged orally during on-site investigations and that knowledge receivers are generally those who are present on the scene. Using these findings, we suggest building a case library to support the externalisation and sharing of knowledge. |
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| Keywords: | Fire investigation Knowledge management Case library Ethnographic study Computer-supported cooperative work Human factors |
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