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ESDA testing fear

01 January 1991

ESDA testing fear
artdoc March=1992

Concern is being expressed at reports that policemen are
receiving instructions on how to avoid ESDA tests on written
documents. ESDA analysis looks at the sheet of paper below the
one that has been written on and can tell if the impressions
match with the written version above and is therefore,
contemporaneous. It has been particularly successful in providing
grounds for appeal in cases wrongful conviction. It would seem
that policeman are being encouraged to insert stiff sheets of
plastic between the pages, leaving no impression. A Parliamentary
question on the practice received the following answer from Mr
Peter Lloyd: "I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the
Metropolis that plastic cards were introduced for officers
conducting surveillance operations for two main purposes; to
stiffen the soft cover notebooks used and to provide officers
with procedural guidance which is printed on the card. Each note
book and each page of every notebook is uniquely numbered and
this ensures the integrity of the record. Plastic cards are not
used between the sheets of manual records of interviews with
suspects."
Guardian, 8.1.92, Hansard written answer 23.1.92