Until recently, clandestine burial investigations relied upon witness statements to determine target search areas of soil and vegetation disturbance. Due to this, remote sensing technologies are increasingly used to detect fresh clandestine graves. However, despite the increased capabilities of remote sensing, clandestine burial searches remain resourcefully intensive as the police have little access to the technology when it is required. In contrast to this, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is increasingly popular amongst law enforcement worldwide. As such, this paper explores the use of digital imagery collected from a low cost UAV for the aided detection of disturbed soil sites indicative of fresh clandestine graves. This is done by assessing the unaltered UAV video output using image processing tools to detect sites of disturbance, therefore highlighting previously unrecognised capabilities of police UAVs. This preliminary investigation provides a low cost rapid approach to detecting fresh clandestine graves, further supporting the use of UAV technology by UK police.

A significant number of UK fire fatalities have been reported to involve textiles contaminated with emollients. In the following study, the flammability of a variety of fabrics containing 14 different emollients, including paraffin-free creams, was evaluated. This is the first time the impact of the presence of such a large range of emollients has been examined. Horizontal burn tests were conducted on emollient-contaminated fabrics. Significantly earlier ignition time were noted upon heating for all emollient-contaminated fabrics (p < 0.001) when compared to the behaviour of blank fabrics were noted using a vertical burn test. The mean time to ignition for 100% cotton fabric (151 ± 2 g/m2) was reduced from 71.5 to 14.4 s and for 52%/48% polyester/cotton fabric (103 ± 2 g/m2) from 328 to 12.9 s by the presence of emollients. Horizontal burn tests with a direct flame on 100% cotton fabric (114 ± 1 g/m2) displayed an accelerated mean flame speed from 0.0032 to 0.0048 ms−1 and an increased maximum flame height of 56.6 to 175.4 mm for emollient-contaminated fabrics. These findings demonstrate the fire risk of fabrics contaminated with a dried emollient. Their potential to ignite quickly and to propagate a fire may strongly decrease the reaction time of an impacted individual. Therefore, it is important that this risk and appropriate safety advice be continually highlighted and communicated not only in the UK but worldwide.