During its first century as a designated unit within the Queensland Police Service, the photographic section had to constantly adapt to the ever changing technologies that were shaping the art of photography.
The section went through several major technological changes with one of the biggest shake ups taking place in 1962 when colour photography was introduced into the service, a first for an Australian police service.
This revolutionary transition was initially resisted by courts with the argument that due to the content being illustrated so graphically in living colour, it would be inflammatory to the jury.
However, as colour TV and photographs became more widespread in Queensland, coloured crime photos became accepted and all major crime was eventually presented in colour to courts.
One of the most significant changes to be implemented within the QPS that continues to reverberate to this day was the introduction of digital photography.
The world’s first digital camera was invented in 1975 and in the decade from 1981 to 1990 these cameras were further advanced and eventually broadly available.
Early digital cameras were expensive and captured images in low resolution. However, as the technology advanced the photographic section commenced testing digital photography in 2002.
The Sony Mavica (DEMO), with its 3.5-inch floppy disc storage, happened to be the first digital camera adopted by the photographic section and was used in conjunction with stitching software to produce the first Interactive Crime Scene Reconstructions.
In 2006, Scenes of Crime Officers commenced using digital photography and by the end of 2008, the changeover from crime scene film capture to digital capture was complete, albeit with a small amount of non-forensic film still being processed for a number of years afterwards.
The Photographic Section continued processing speed camera film until April 2016 when TCO changed to full digital capture.
Over the last couple of years, Brisbane’s forensic negative holdings have been moved to a climate controlled environment, managed by State Archives.
Today, all police photographers are issued with digital still cameras and the images are uploaded onto a database and can be viewed instantly.
Beyond the implementation of digital photography, the section continues to utilise new technology and equipment to document and solve crime.
3D handheld scanners and 3D terrestrial scanners, Remotely Piloted Aircraft (drones), aerial video/photography and 4D photogrammetric software are some of the latest systems being incorporated within the section.
All these technologies are now used to service the people of Queensland and maintain a modern photographic service within the QPS.
This blog was written by the photographic section in conjunction with QPS Media to celebrate the achievements and evolution of the section in its 125th year.