A small, four-pound camera looks to drastically change the way crime scenes are processed in Colorado.

The Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) and the Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force began training local departments with its new forensics camera on Wednesday at the Lakewood Police Department. The goal is to cut down crime scene investigating through its hybrid-spectral imaging system.

The BlindSite Scene from Smytec is a brand-new camera that works to find and take photos of latent fingerprints, DNA and body fluids without the need for chemical enhancement, processing the photos directly on the camera.

Furthermore, the camera connects the fingerprints directly to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), processing direct matches on the software.

“The ability to be able to bring it here, it’s awesome,” Lakewood Police Cmdr. John Pickard told The Denver Gazette, comparing the device to when normal cameras were introduced to crime scenes, cutting down the need for artist drawings.

“You see something you know is going to change the game, and it’s like ‘wow’,” he continued.

The camera can also recreate digital versions of the fingerprints and DNA, limiting the need for lifts that could potentially damage the evidence. These digital versions could then be used directly as evidence in court cases.

The camera — which launched in September after nearly five years of development — is the first of its kind, with metro Denver law enforcement agencies being of the first in the United States to pick up the technology.

Alexander Smyth created the camera in the United Kingdom in 2019. The small company, currently made up of seven people, keeps all of the production within the United Kingdom, flying out to Lakewood for the training process Wednesday.

“It’s very complicated optics,” Smyth said of why the technology hadn’t been created already. “To get something that small that utilizes the sensitivity that we do, it’s very difficult.”

While the camera runs around $45,000, the Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force paid around $70,000 for theirs. The price increase was due to the integrated AFIS system, tariffs and a five-year warranty.

Still, the task force believes the price will pay off almost immediately.

“Efficiency is the main draw,” Smyth said. “If you just have a regular break-in and you want to process the door or window. You could be there for the whole day. With this, you can do it in an hour.”

Smyth’s research found that if England were to adopt the camera in its police work, it would save around $137 million in crime-scene labor.

“If you extrapolate that out to the U.S., the savings would be significant,” he said.

“Initially, it’s going to be slow like anything new,” Pickard said. “It’s going to be finding what is best practice, but it will greatly expedite the process and find more things than we normally do.”

Part of that introductory process, as Pickard mentioned, was sifting through the added evidence. Due to the camera’s high-powered ability, investigators will pick up more evidence than they usually would, making the job of deciphering it more arduous — but more effective.

“It’s almost too efficient,” Pickard laughed.

Officers will start using the camera in the next month. Auto-theft cases will be the only ones the camera works, at first. Once the practice is perfected, the camera will start being used for bigger cases outside of just auto theft.