Op Pencarrow

Operation Pencarrow, was a large police investigation, where three New Zealand Police Armed Offender Squad (AOS) members received gunshot-related injuries after entering the house at the centre of a 22-hour siege in March 2016. A fourth AOS member also received a gunshot injury to his hand while outside, at the rear of the property. The scene was captured, including 44 trajectories, using a laser scanner.

The laser scan data was of high value to the court case due to the large number of shots and the complexity of the scene. Of particular interest was the hallway, where the initial shot was fired at a member of the AOS. It was proposed that the prosecution would get a physical model of the hallway built in the court room. However, Virtual Reality (VR) headsets were trialed to walk the lawyers through the scene using the laser scan data. It was decided that VR wouldn’t be suitable for use in the court, and a video flythrough of the laser scan data was created for use in the court case. Outputs provided to the police included a plan view of the scene area, a floor plan of the house and the video flythrough of the scene. The video consisted of a camera path, moving between areas of interest throughout the scene, and was designed to assist the viewer in understanding the location of evidence. Photographs captured by the Police photographer were also intermittently included in the movie.