It's been a while since we gave our web site a facelift, but that's now a done thing. Our web site has a fresh new look making it easier on the eye, and we've made it easier for you to share your thoughts with us, and comment on our site whilst sharing information with others through our own Blog and Guestbook, as well as Facebook, and Twitter.

We're always keen to hear what you think about our web site and develop it as a resource to support those interested in all things forensic.

Home Page  ¦   Guestbook  ¦   Facebook  ¦   Twitter

The Forensic Science Education Centre housed in the Old Police Station in Keighley has now been passed back to KeighleyTown Council, who will operate the Police Museum as a "Social Enterprise", meaning it will be run by volunteers rather than as a commercial activity involving real forensic scientists and those with expertise in crime scene examination and laboratory-based forensic investigation.

Mr Parry, project coordinator for the Police Museum has said that actors will now entertain visitors to the "activities" in the Police Museum. Unfortunately, we note that opportunity for laboratory-based investigation led by former forensic professionals will now not be available at all.

This is still early days for those seeking to develop the facility and we wish them success. For now, whilst our initial involvement in developing the Forensic Science Education Centre as an integral part of the Police Museum is behind us, we will, together with Keighley Council, continue to review opportunities to make the Police Museum and FSEC something that is both absolutely unique and a compelling visit.

Meanwhile, we continue to provide excellent opportunities to both individuals and organisations interested in the world of forensic examination through our courses.

Education Centre

This has been a key period of decision making for our involvement in the Keighley Police Museum project. Despite our development of the Forensic Science Education Centre having been completed for the Royal opening on April 3rd, no partner has yet been appointed to develop the Police Museum to date. This has had some serious consequences for the way we have been able to use the Centre. So, a bit more information, and what it means ....

On May 14th 2012, following a decision by the Town Council, the Keighley Police Museum opened its doors to the public, this, even though work in developing the museum was at a very early stage. To provide a more rounded visitor experience, we decided early in May that the Forensic Science Education Centre should be configured to support what was clearly an incubation stage for the Police Museum.

What this means for visitors is that the Centre has been set as a static area in which they can first view a simulated crime scene, and then items of evidence in the csi "laboratory." These items have been siezed from two suspects, and visitors have to decide whether or not the evidence places the suspects at the scene. The experience provides visitors with some insights into the interpretation of forensic evidence.

BUT, because the csi lab has been configured as a static display, it has not been possible to offer courses in the same space because these require the space to be accessible and changeable at all times. And this remains the situation to date, and is likely to be the situation for the foreseable future, perhaps for the rest of 2012. Much depends on whether a partner is signed up in the near future.

We have made a separate bid to the Town Council to help them develop the Police Museum, so who knows, perhaps we'll end up driving both parts of the project in the future!

Watch this space for further items of news about the FSEC and the Keighley Police Museum.

After months of quiet preparation and development, we are pleased to announce the opening of our new Forensic Education Centre.

Based in what was originally the Keighley Police Station the building has been completely rennovated at a cost of £1.1M to provide an absolutely unique facility housing a police museum incorporating the old cells kitted out in different eras, with memorabilia about local crimes and case histories for visitors to follow. The facility also houses several set period crime scenes. Visitors to the Centre can therefore experience a wide range of activities from crime scene examination to courtroom drama. Complete with full function room catering facilities, the centre is suitable for corporate hospitality events combining business gatherings with visits to the old cells and court room re-enactments. There really is no other facility like this anywhere else.

From The Crime Scene

We took some images of one of our trainee crime scene examiners lifting some fingerprints from a window he had dusted with powder, and converted it into a 156-piece jigsaw puzzle. We've completed it in a little over 20 minutes. But can you beat our time and complete the jigsaw in 20 minutes or less? We don't think so!  Try it

NEW SCIENTIST SURVEY
MORE than three-quarters of UK forensic scientists that responded to a New Scientist survey believe that the closure of the UK's Forensic Science Service (FSS) next month will lead to an increase in miscarriages of justice. Most also believe that switching to private and in-house police labs will reduce impartiality in interpretation, and therefore accuracy, of evidence.

Full Article

It's that time of year again when we have had some time to review our web site and make both cosmetic changes and some restructuring to it. We now have a brand new Home Page and have completely reorganised our Diversions Corner.

Diversions Corner
Our  Diversions Corner has something for everyone who visits it, including a range of puzzles and things to do, a collection of forensically-related  trivia questions, a collection of  photographic images (from one of us), and a small collection of video clips. The Puzzles Section has now been split in to three different areas:

Jigsaw Puzzles ¦  Sliding Tiles Puzzles ¦ Look, Do and Solve Puzzles

Give them a try. We're sure you'll find something to keep you wiling away the hours. We will, of course, be adding more and more puzzles to these sections as time goes by, and because you are already subscribed to our RSS feed, you'll be one of the first to know when the're out.

We have continued to add photographic images to this Section of the Diversions Corner. At present, this continues to be a collection of images that one of us uses as an alternative to the likes of Flickr. As you might expect, we are often asked whether we will be putting images from crime scenes and taken in the course of forensic investigation on our web site. But that's not something we're planning to do, at least not in the foreseable future, but if you would like us to create a place where you can upload your own images for public consumption, please  let us know.

Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the refreshed experience of using our web site.

The Webmaster

Yes, we've been at it again - adding some more jigsaw puzzles to the Diversions pages of our site. They have now all been placed on their own page. At the moment, the puzzles can be played only on-line but we will soon be making downloadable (zip) versions of the puzzles so our visitors can run them directly from their computers.



Let us know if you have any forensic/police/crime scene - related  images that you would like to have added to our collection.

The Webmaster

AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS: 25 £100 coupons to offset costs for our forensic and crime scene courses to students.

==== FREE COUPONS WORTH £100 EACH ====

COUPON CODE: FORSEP11 - Expire 30th June 2012

We have free coupons to give away to the first 25 UK teachers who sign up to claim them in our free members' section. Each coupon is worth £100, and can be used to offset the cost of one of our forensic or crime scene courses to students. The coupons can also be redeemed against the cost of teaching support materials (wherever they are sought) after we have delivered one of our courses in your school or college.

==== GET THEM BEFORE THEY GO ====

How to Get the Discount Coupon

1) Register with the Members' Section on our web site.
2) Access the Free Coupon page using the "Free Coupon" link, and
3) Confirm your details using the "Get-in-Touch" link in the members' section.

That's all there is to do. And if you are one of the first 25 to get in touch with us, then we'll let you know that a coupon is yours to use for your school or college.

The membership area for our site has now been reopened after a complete rewrite of the membership site pages and rebuilding of the back-end stuff that supports them. New members will find it easy to sign up, and all will find that access to information restricted to members is easier than ever, which, let's face it, is what really matters to our customers. We have added some new contact forms for those occasions when you need some customer support in a hurry, and other little changes that will make using the members' section a simple process.

We have yet to repopulate all the sections with documents and will be carrying out that work in the weeks ahead.

[http://www.castleviewuk.com/EasyMember/index.php?page=home]

Check it out! Not only has our Diversions Corner page been completely rewritten to place a greater focus on our collection of forensic trivia questions, puzzles and challenges, but many more of these have been added to our site. There's also a regular Tweet (at http://twitter.com/#!/CastlevForensic) where we post brief details of each new addition. So check us out and tell us what you think.

You can now follow us on Twitter(at http://twitter.com/#!/CastlevForensic) and Facebook (at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CastleViewUK-Forensics-Ltd/213147738715760). Just click on the links on our home page.

We're Off! Our collection of forensic trivia questions and puzzles has now been launched, and will grow daily. Watch this space ...