National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 384 - 384 351 Strike Out

384: Chapter 351 Strike Out 384: Chapter 351 Strike Out Guqi City Bureau.

The setting sun cast a red glow on the heavy clouds, making them appear translucent.

At Director Gao’s command, the previously tranquil courtyard of the city bureau boiled into action in an instant.

Hundreds of officers, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, emerged from upstairs, downstairs, the basement, and cracks in the corners, assembling fully equipped in the yard.

Director Gao geared up in his tactical uniform, donned a bulletproof vest, and slung a gun holster around his waist, looking down with fierce determination.

“Four children under the age of five, listed by the ministry, with the earnest concern and urging of leaders at all levels, the importance of the case is self-evident.

I am now assigning tasks.

Units and individuals who receive tasks, don’t fight for credit, don’t shy away, are not afraid of difficulties or sacrifice, must put forth every effort to complete the mission.

Even if knives fall from the sky, you will fight over the bodies of your comrades to finish it!”

With a megaphone in hand, Director Gao’s voice boomed clearly through the air, and his command carried an undeniable forcefulness.

Jiang Yuan looked around in surprise, then asked Dong Bing beside him, “Is Director Gao always like this?”

“For small cases, definitely not, but for big cases, this is how Director Gao is,” Dong Bing replied quietly.

Jiang Yuan made an ‘oh’ sound.

In today’s police forces, slogans about not fearing sacrifice were becoming less and less common.

This Director Gao, when analyzing cases, seemed just like an ordinary police leader, even a bit weak.

No one would have thought that when gearing up for battle, he would be so spirited and bold.

With insight akin to staying with relatives for 35 years, Wu Xia saw through Jiang Yuan’s thoughts and chuckled, “Director Gao used to be in the border defense force before he transferred to local duty.”

“No wonder,” Jiang Yuan said, understanding, then watched as the criminal police teams from the city bureau took their orders and set off as if heading to battle.

New information flowed in continuously, like water.

“We have now identified the mobile phone of the suspected criminal, sending over the number.”

“Several people’s WeChat accounts have been confirmed.”

“Their next likely stop is driving out of the province and exiting the expressway at Xinming Village in Xingfeng Province.

Xinming Village has one of their hideouts.”

“The total number of people in this gang might be over 30, the exact number and gang leaders remain uncertain…”

The criminal syndicate was like an isolated island; finding it without coordinates was a long and lucky exploration, but once the island was found, or even set foot upon, information suddenly became cheap and plentiful.

The new challenge became how to smoothly conquer the island and reap as many fruits of victory as possible, or, to bury those dirty fruits.

Jiang Yuan and several experts listened to the incoming reports, shifting to the more leisurely phase of verifying information.

It wasn’t until the report of the 30-person gang came in that they paid slightly more attention.

“This is considered a medium-sized gang, likely transient nationwide.

We can continue the work of checking old cases,” Zhang Xian advised, seasoned in such matters.

Jiang Yuan nodded.

Without needing to say much, Mu Zhiyang and the others got to work on their own.

Guqi City’s own criminal police were also busy following up with searches.

Jiang Yuan himself looked at the case, unable to calm down for a long time.

Human trafficking, especially of women and children, peaked in the 90s, with the ministry organizing four national crackdowns that had significant impact.

By the year 2000, such cases had dramatically decreased to around 2000 annually.

However, since 2007, these cases began to rise again continuously.

Moreover, the scale of the trafficking gangs has been growing, with longer chains forming, multiple resales becoming common, and members beginning to use single-line contacts, indicating a significant increase in professionalism.

In Jiang Yuan’s view, greed and insufficient punishment went hand in hand.

Members of trafficking gangs typically had low education and income and were mostly female.

After criminal penalties, reemployment was almost impossible for them.

Nowadays, even cleaners and nannies in the cities require a non-criminal record, and it’s hard for these individuals to possess solid technical skills to make an employer hold their nose and accept them.

The remaining options were farming or entrepreneurship.

The latter equates to starting a business, which is not so easy.

In the end, these gang members, who were supposedly reformed in prison, find that trafficking women and children is quick and comfortable money.

Especially for child trafficking, where one could make a transaction and profit thousands with just a few train tickets and days of accommodation.

Not only this, but these former criminals, once hit by the iron fist of the regime and deciding to continue their criminal careers, turn into core members of crime syndicates.

Just a few such members can prop up a gang of a dozen or even dozens of people.

From the end of the trafficking crackdown in 2000 to the resurgence of trafficking gangs in 2007, it’s hard to say how many core gang members were hidden among them.

“I suggest we try to get a visual on these gang members in advance; can we find their photos?” Jiang Yuan looked at Director Wang, who was in charge of Image Enhancement.

“As long as there’s video, finding people is easy,” Director Wang said with a smile.

His specialty was using Image Enhancement to track the movements of suspects, akin to an electronic dog.

Such work, in the movies, seems straightforward with suspects being followed by cameras wherever they go.

In reality, of course, this is not possible.

Cameras have blind spots, some are broken, and some areas don’t have cameras at all.

The most important thing is that networking the cameras is in itself a major project.

Cameras under different management systems are seldom integrated into a single system — this is not a matter of authorization, but often a technical issue.

In short, even tracking a vehicle requires dedicated personnel to be involved for effective pursuit, and tracking individuals is even more difficult.

“I’ll help you later,” Jiang Yuan offered Director Wang a word, then turned his attention back to the social media information like WeChat and QQ others had found.

Director Wang grunted in reply, not taking it seriously.

Jiang Yuan might be exceptionally brilliant at trace evidence analysis, but how much could his expertise contribute in the area of image analysis?

If he really needed a diligent “observer,” he’d rather have someone like Dong Bing.

Jiang Yuan temporarily let Director Wang off the hook and started searching through the chat contents of the crime suspects.

Once phone numbers or account IDs are confirmed, related information can be directly retrieved from backup servers.

For police officers, quickly searching for useful content is the main task.

Common examples include identifying a criminal’s group; if they use group chats to order takeout, the suspect’s address can be determined from the delivery address, or…

The extracted information was voluminous; what was useful was sent to the front line.

If further investigation was necessary, there were other frontline personnel available for deployment.

The benefit of handling a case overseen by the ministry is that there is never a shortage of resources or manpower.

In theory, with these two things, 99% of cases can be solved.

It’s just a matter of difficulty, time, and extent.

Before long, Director Wang had churned out the first batch of surveillance footage.

Jiang Yuan heard the noise and proactively went over to take a look, where he saw Director Wang’s two assistants huffing and puffing as they performed Image Enhancement.

The quality of surveillance footage is greatly affected by both its own nature and the environment.

On the one hand, it is exposed to the elements — weathering, rain, snow, and smog all can diminish the clarity of the image.

Furthermore, the resolution of surveillance footage is also limited.

Without need for comparison, the difference in picture quality between 4K, 1080P, and 240P resources is evident to all.

Since surveillance equipment is installed over time, some places still use systems that are a decade old, and investment varies by location, so there is no one-size-fits-all.

Beyond that, distance is also a decisive factor.

The same image quality, when capturing a person one meter away versus one hundred meters away, will obviously be different.

All these factors can be partly or completely addressed by Image Enhancement Technology.

As an expert in image tracking, Director Wang naturally placed great importance on these issues, and his proteges worked diligently, constantly pulling up various boxes and command lines, one of whom was clearly a tech whiz of at least Level 2.

In the field of Image Enhancement, technicians who can reach Level 2 are exceptionally valuable.

The two technicians Director Wang brought, whose Image Enhancement skills were above Level 2, were obviously recruited from society, while the other, although seeming to be a police academy graduate, had to have an image processing capability of at least Level 1.5.

Maintaining such two technicians likely cost more than an entire canine squadron.

Jiang Yuan patted the shoulder of the slightly less skilled technician on the right and said, “Make some room.”

Having dealt with external units for a long time, he was accustomed to interacting with people from other departments.

Sometimes, when you use language to describe your own ability and technological gaps with others, they often take it as an insult.

On the other hand, actual operation often brings a stark and humiliating comparison of skills, yet most people remain very calm under such circumstances.

The technician, who cost about a third of a canine squadron and Director Wang brought in, stood up somewhat bewildered, not quite sure what Jiang Yuan intended to do.

Jiang Yuan unapologetically took his seat and began to work promptly.

The one-third canine squadron technician looked confused and sought Director Wang’s guidance.

Director Wang had also noticed the commotion and slowly approached.

By this time, Jiang Yuan had officially started the Image Enhancement process.

He had just observed the software used by the one-third canine technician and quickly recognized the version, easily getting into the groove.

By the time Director Wang arrived, Jiang Yuan had already processed an image frame to perfection.

This photo was from a car rental company, recorded in the parking lot surveillance, with average image quality.

Although one could make out a face, using it for clear identification was a bit difficult.

However, Jiang Yuan used a method to fill in noise pixels, even enlarging the face in the process.

“Is this okay?” Jiang Yuan politely asked for Director Wang’s opinion upon his arrival.

Director Wang, an expert in imaging, was a good judge of quality and, after leaning into the computer for a while, could not help but regard Jiang Yuan, “You know how to do Image Enhancement too?”

“You could say I know a bit,” Jiang Yuan replied as he casually punched in a series of functions into the command line — there was no need for it, just to demonstrate the prowess of Image Enhancement Level 5.

The expressions and attitudes of Director Wang and his two assistants softened significantly, like the Dazhuangs that had been fed Level 5 dog food.

“Let’s put some effort in, and try to secure the images of this gang’s members,” Jiang Yuan declared, like a navy captain who had landed on Pirate Island and began counting heads.

At the scene, the only two female officers, Dong Bing, suddenly said in a voice only Tang Jia could hear, “Ningtai Jiangyuan, no wonder.”

Tang Jia rolled her eyes, thinking to herself: since when do policewomen talk in such a coquettish tone?