Body odor test
Body odor tests are a seldom used form of trace in criminology . The odor sample can serve as indirect evidence, so-called circumstantial evidence . In addition to criminal prosecution, smell samples are used to reconstruct crime or to search for missing people ( see also tracking ).
Meaning and procedure
Their technical importance has with the development of other identification service methods such. B. video surveillance and the genetic fingerprint lost of practical importance. The spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office called the evidential value of the odor samples unclear, “ They have no evidential value in the classic sense. But we are of the opinion that it has an indicative value and can be included in an overall assessment ”.
Recognition of the smell by a service dog can indicate a possible involvement in a crime. The sample is taken with a long metal tube, which the person concerned presses on, so that flakes of skin stick to the tube. The samples are then compared with existing evidence for body odor .
Use in the GDR
The People's Police of East Germany developed from the 1970s onwards the method of odor differentiation for which the smells of objects at the scene and body odors were taken from suspects and preserved. This was done using sterile cloths that were kept airtight in jars. Specially trained differentiation dogs were able to compare these smells. The procedure was also used by the Ministry of State Security . At the end of the 1980s, the MfS set up odor archives about dissidents . According to the “ Dictionary of Political-Operative Work ”, traces of odor were “either taken directly from parts of the suspect's body or secured in a conspiratorial manner on the items of clothing they were wearing or objects they touched”. An instruction from the GDR interior ministry from 1981 indicates that the GDR criminal police also took samples from criminals. The so-called odor preserves were not used as evidence. In a Stasi document it says that the odor differentiation is only suitable "for narrowing down the circle of suspicious people".
Discussion in spring 2007
Against this background, politicians from the SPD, the Greens and the FDP criticized the taking of smell samples from G8 opponents as “police state” and “Stasi methods”. The CDU MP Wolfgang Bosbach spoke of a "curious event" in this context.
It was speculated that during the term of office of Wolfgang Schäuble ( CDU ) as Federal Minister of the Interior, body odor samples would be taken from people who are suspected by an authority of committing a criminal offense in the future without their consent . In addition to the benefit, the legal basis of a possible " data retention " of the body odor is unclear .
The commissioner for Stasi documents , Marianne Birthler criticized the action in the Sächsische Zeitung “ It is unworthy of a constitutional state to secretly collect and store the most intimate data of its citizens ”, she feels reminded of the curiosity cabinet of the Stasi. The CDU interior politician Clemens Binninger said in the world " the lack of understanding that is triggered by methods such as the taking of odor samples weighs much more heavily than any possible benefit ".
Web links
- Telepolis , The Federal Prosecutor's Office lets a sniff, May 22, 2007
- Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , “Odor Preserve” in the Stasi mason jar, 23 May 2007
- German Espionage Museum , The Smell Preserve - an extraordinary search method used by the Stasi
Individual evidence
- ↑ ZDF-heute: Police take odor samples from G8 opponents ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kristie Macrakis: The Stasi Secrets: Methods and Technology of GDR Espionage. Herbig 2009, ISBN 978-3776625929 , pp. 371ff.
- ^ Dictionary of the State Security. GVS JHS 001-400 / 81, published by BStU 1993, p. 137
- ↑ Merkel calls for G8 to do more climate protection on Tagesschau May 24, 2007
- ^ Spiegel online May 23, 2007
- ↑ Reuters: Justice Minister distanced himself from the search for smell samples ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
