Ocotillo
12-16-2005, 01:04 PM
story (http://kutv.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_348082743.html)
Japan Out To Catch Train Gropers
Save It Email It Print It
(AP) TOKYO Stumped for years by blatant suspects, Japanese police are using forensic analysis in hunting down gropers on crowded trains by matching tiny fabric fibers from the suspect's palm with the victim's clothes.
The technique used by Osaka Prefectural Police in western Japan helped nab 16 suspects in the first ten months of this year, up from four cases proved the whole of last year, said Hirotsugu Sanuki of the Osaka Police's Science Research Institute.
Osaka police began applying the method in 2003, Sanuki said.
Groping has long been a problem on crowded subways and other commuter trains in big Japanese cities like Osaka and Tokyo. Passengers are often tightly pressed against each other, an inviting environment for potential offenders.
Under the technique, a special film is pressed on the suspect's palm to collect microfibers about a few hundredths of a millimeter. The samples taken are compared with fiber samples from the suspect's clothes on a powerful microscope, Sanuki said.
A similar investigation method is used by Tokyo police in about 150 molestation cases a year, according to the national Asahi newspaper.
A record 2,201 cases of groping on Tokyo commuter trains were reported to police last year, the latest year in which police statistics were available. More than half of them were committed during the jam-packed morning rush hour.
According to Osaka police, 416 gropers were arrested last year, up 8 percent from the previous year, in Osaka, Japan's second-largest commercial city with a population of 8.8 million people.
Osaka is 408 kilometers (253 miles) west of Tokyo.
Police in recent years have increased patrolling on trains and platforms to cut the crime, and train operators have introduced "women only" cars, although the number of cars and service hours are largely limited.
Although train authorities began to encourage women riders to report groping to authorities, many still call it a "nuisance" rather than a crime. Gropers can be imprisoned for up to seven years, or fined up to 50,000 yen (US$420; euro354).
:drunk
Japan Out To Catch Train Gropers
Save It Email It Print It
(AP) TOKYO Stumped for years by blatant suspects, Japanese police are using forensic analysis in hunting down gropers on crowded trains by matching tiny fabric fibers from the suspect's palm with the victim's clothes.
The technique used by Osaka Prefectural Police in western Japan helped nab 16 suspects in the first ten months of this year, up from four cases proved the whole of last year, said Hirotsugu Sanuki of the Osaka Police's Science Research Institute.
Osaka police began applying the method in 2003, Sanuki said.
Groping has long been a problem on crowded subways and other commuter trains in big Japanese cities like Osaka and Tokyo. Passengers are often tightly pressed against each other, an inviting environment for potential offenders.
Under the technique, a special film is pressed on the suspect's palm to collect microfibers about a few hundredths of a millimeter. The samples taken are compared with fiber samples from the suspect's clothes on a powerful microscope, Sanuki said.
A similar investigation method is used by Tokyo police in about 150 molestation cases a year, according to the national Asahi newspaper.
A record 2,201 cases of groping on Tokyo commuter trains were reported to police last year, the latest year in which police statistics were available. More than half of them were committed during the jam-packed morning rush hour.
According to Osaka police, 416 gropers were arrested last year, up 8 percent from the previous year, in Osaka, Japan's second-largest commercial city with a population of 8.8 million people.
Osaka is 408 kilometers (253 miles) west of Tokyo.
Police in recent years have increased patrolling on trains and platforms to cut the crime, and train operators have introduced "women only" cars, although the number of cars and service hours are largely limited.
Although train authorities began to encourage women riders to report groping to authorities, many still call it a "nuisance" rather than a crime. Gropers can be imprisoned for up to seven years, or fined up to 50,000 yen (US$420; euro354).
:drunk