The suspect, male, height about 1.73 meters, weight around 60 kilograms, bowed legs, hunchbacked, aged between twenty to twenty-five.
Liu Guodong and the other two looked at the suspect characteristics written on the draft paper by Lu Chuan, utterly confused.
Old Bai picked up the draft paper, his forehead wrinkling enough to kill a mosquito: "Lu... putting other characteristics aside, how did you deduce this hunchback?"
Old Bai had been involved in crime scene investigations and trace analysis for over a decade; after all, it was he who established the crime scene investigation office of the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team.
However, his capability was indeed inferior to Liu Guodong's, not to mention that with advancing age, handling many tasks had become challenging for him.
But aging doesn't just mean declining physical strength; it often indicates having wide knowledge.
Though Bai Wenhai's technical abilities haven't been particularly outstanding over the years, he has encountered the most cases.
He naturally has been exposed to footprint analysis, and he even witnessed experts from the province conducting footprint analysis in earlier years.
Therefore, it's no surprise that amazing experts can deduce a person's height and weight from their footprints.
Although age is more difficult, apparently footprints at different age stages, due to changes in bone gap distances, reflect that on the footprints, and many experts can achieve this.
As for the leg shape, it's even easier; O-shaped legs, X-shaped legs, can be determined from the pressure on the edges of footprints.
But what about the hunchback?
Can this really be discerned from footprints too?
"Here's the thing, people with a hunchback have a curved spine, leading their body's center of gravity to differ from that of ordinary people, leaning more forward in comparison."
Lu Chuan picked up a photo of the shoe print: "The center of gravity of these shoe prints is shifted about a centimeter forward compared to the center of gravity of ordinary shoe prints."
"Of course, if the person was stooping while leaving the shoe print, their center of gravity would also shift forward, but..."
Lu Chuan picked up other shoe print photos: "Every single shoe print photo is like this, which can't simply be explained by stooping."
Lu Chuan is a good teacher. Although it was unclear how Lu Chuan measured the shoe print's center of gravity, Bai Wenhai and the other two understood why a hunchback could be deduced from it.
In this regard, Lu Chuan is even more suitable to be a teacher than Jia.
"But just this isn't enough."
Yang Sen frowned, looking at the suspect information on the draft paper: "I think the purpose of Director Song should be to catch the suspect, not just to know the suspect's physical characteristics."
Lu Chuan shrugged, thinking of his advanced task: "This is simple, we can issue an internal collaboration notice based on the suspect's physical characteristics."
"Judging by the suspect's method of operation, he should be a habitual thief; these people won't easily give up, and most likely have been apprehended before."
Liu Guodong nodded: "Lu's description of the suspect's physical characteristics is already very detailed. I'll talk to the action group to see if we can issue a notice so that we can be informed if someone similar appears."
Yang Sen and Old Bai nodded; issuing an internal collaboration notice isn't a small matter, but it's not a big one either.
If a grassroots police station wants to issue this collaboration notice, they have to report to higher authorities for approval.
But if it's the Criminal Investigation Team issuing the notice, it's much simpler.
Of course, this notice also has a scope; if it's a nationwide notice, the requirements are higher.
Generally, without a case of severe injury or worse, nationwide collaboration is unlikely, and it requires that the evidence against the suspect is already substantially secured.
In reality, police handling a case is different from what ordinary people imagine.
Typically, ordinary people think handling a case is just about catching the suspect.
But for the police, catching the criminal suspect is often not the first priority.
The most important thing is actually securing evidence, followed by apprehending the suspect, and finally, trial.
If the evidence isn't secured, even if the suspect is right in front of you and admits he's the murderer, you can't arrest him.
This is also why many small theft cases are difficult to solve.
It's because securing evidence is challenging.
Unlike murder, which leaves a body, a murder weapon, and traces at the scene, with most cases having a special motive.
Theft is different, except for things like burglary; typical thefts like stealing a bicycle leave no traces as the bicycle is taken away.
Mostly, this happens in public places where no traces are well preserved.
As for motive… does stealing an expensive bike count?
Of course, the scope of the collaboration notice issued by Liu Guodong is limited to the police stations under the jurisdiction of the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau.
This is equivalent to having our people find something; we can decide for ourselves. If it needs to be expanded further, Liu Guodong's standing won't suffice.
The internal collaboration notice was promptly issued; such a collaboration doesn't even need Qin Yong's signature.
Of course, the contents of the collaboration are simple, merely asking the grassroots police stations to pay attention to thieves with these physical characteristics.
It didn't say this was the talent who visited Song Jiangguo's father-in-law's house.
In fact, this guy probably doesn't know whose property he stole.
If he knew, you couldn't make him do it for a million dollars.
It's like no woman would dare to solicit clients behind a police station. There needs to be some respect.
If you insist on trying, the consequence is a small theft being targeted by the Criminal Investigation Team.
Even after two years, there were still four crime scene investigators fully committed to figuring out how to catch the suspect.
The end of the workday came a bit late, with the notice issued by six o'clock.
However, the bright side is that Lu Chuan's advanced task was already two-thirds complete.
Analysis of the suspect's characteristics was complete, and the internal collaboration notice had been issued.
Next, it depended on whether they could capture the suspect.
Of course, that would require a bit of luck.
Lu Chuan looked through the Eye of Truth; the person with similar physical characteristics had never previously entered a collaboration notice, indicating this guy hadn't committed any major offenses before, although now he did.
"Lu, heading off work?"
"Lu, you've worked hard."
"Lu Chuan, action team one is having a get-together tomorrow, join us!"
...
In the yard, nearly everyone greeted Lu Chuan.
This was the sort of treatment Lu Chuan hadn't experienced in his half-month of employment.
Actually, when he first started, he did cause a bit of a stir.
After all, he caught a wanted criminal on his first job, and it was a suspect from a robbery and murder case that happened twenty-eight years ago. Most importantly, he nabbed the guy at his wedding.
Achieving a personal third-class merit had indeed envied many people.
However, people mainly cast curious glances, to see if this newcomer who accomplished a third-class merit was something extraordinary.
Curiosity aside, there was a bit of sour grapes amongst some.
But it's different now; everyone knows about the case of Zhang Wen's murder, and it was Lu Chuan's discovery that was the key clue.
Not to mention, this morning, this guy went to the Huaguang Street police station and captured the suspect in last year's robbery and injury case.
If catching that wanted criminal half a month ago was about luck, then these two cases demonstrated capability.
Of course, that's not the most important part; Lu Chuan's prowess is his own matter.
The key is that solving the homicide caused everyone to benefit from Lu Chuan's efforts, avoiding overtime.
In fact, for the next few days, barring significant cases, everyone could spend more time with their families.
For detectives, two things matter the most: accolades and vacation time.
Accolades…
Most people don't need to think about it; getting an annual outstanding individual or model worker award is like burning incense.
Third-class merit… maybe once every three years; second-class merit… once in a decade.
As for first-class merit…
Nobody desires it too much, as achieving first-class merit typically signifies having made the ultimate sacrifice.
Time off is more tangible, and the happiness on everyone's faces despite being tired shows how enjoyable it is.
Nevertheless, unpredictable changes loom, and fortune can be capricious.