A reference database of vehicle tyres and tyre tread patterns to assist the identification of vehicles from crime scene data

TreadMate is a reference collection containing details of over 5000 vehicle tyres. It may be used as a stand alone system or with SICAR, the company’s shoe print and tyre mark evidence management system.

Each vehicle tyre record in TreadMate contains the tyre’s manufacturer, the manufacturer’s reference for that tyre, the date of its release on to the market, a pictorial image of the tyre and a set of pattern feature codes that facilitate search and match operations. Where different manufacturers have used the same tread, TreadMate records are linked to allow the operator to consider all the vehicle tyres that might have been responsible for a crime scene tyre mark.

To use the database, the pattern of the unidentified tyre mark is first assigned a set of codes. In this procedure, the operator identifies elemental pattern features within the tyre print, such as waves, lines, diamonds, zigzags, curves, blocks etc. These options are presented to the operator, pictorially with variations for the operator to select those that best match the features within the tyre mark. The codes assigned to these pattern features form the basis of the database search. Results of a search are presented in descending order of correlation for the operator to examine visually.

TreadMate is available on DVD, updates are issued annually with information on new tyres.

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