The Landeskriminalamt (LKA) Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony's state criminal police office, has moved a VR-based crime-scene reconstruction system into live operation. Built and demonstrated through the LKA's XR-Lab at its Kriminaltechnisches Institut (forensic institute) in Hannover, the system turns a physical crime scene into an explorable digital twin.
Investigators build the digital twin from laser scans and photographs. The laser scanner can be mounted on a tripod for a more detailed static scan of areas with many traces, or carried as a backpack unit to cover larger areas quickly. Physical evidence is then displayed in the model at the position where it was found, and additional data — such as records from mobile phones, vehicles, or networked devices in a residence — can be linked into the reconstruction.
The finished model is explored with a VR headset and hand controllers, letting investigators move through rooms and hallways as if physically present at the scene. In a demonstration using a practice apartment, Lower Saxony's interior minister moved through the rooms while a timeline overlay plotted motion- and door-sensor data, sketching a possible sequence of events. The LKA is explicit that this depiction is a hypothesis for investigators to test against the evidence, not a determination of what happened.
LKA president Thorsten Massinger said the technology has only recently entered live operation. It won't suit every case, he said, but will be used regularly going forward for capital crimes and cases where people have been seriously harmed, and early feedback from investigators has been positive. He put the project's cost at roughly €600,000. For now the LKA has only two of the laser scanning devices, deployed statewide for these serious cases, and investigators from elsewhere in Lower Saxony must travel to Hannover to review their scenes — so the technology isn't yet intended for everyday policing. The LKA's stated long-term goal is to offer the digital crime-scene reconstruction as a standing service and make it accessible to police departments across the state.
Massinger said the reconstruction lets investigators return to a scene after the fact, re-examine individual pieces of evidence and check whether they weighted them correctly the first time.
