The camera is equipped with a special flash and a macro lens that can magnify tiny wounds - smaller than a freckle - and enlarge them to a size bigger than an 8-inch-by-10-inch photograph, revealing details invisible to the naked eye.

The forensic camera comes with special software that encrypts each photo, making it impossible for anyone to manipulate original images - which can be a point of contention in courtroom proceedings.

It was demonstrated for law-enforcement officers and prosecutors Thursday at an informational meeting at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.

The entire system cost about $16,500 and will be housed at Mercy Regional Medical Center. It was paid for by the Colorado Violence Against Women Office, funds seized by the Southwest Drug Task Force and the Pine River Valley Bank.

The camera can reveal tiny abrasions, bruises and rashes that can result from a sexual assault. That kind of physical evidence is important to juries, especially in today's culture, in which television viewers see complicated crimes solved using high-tech equipment in 45-minute shows.

Before purchasing the digital forensic camera, nurses at Mercy were using a Colposcope, which was originally created to look for cervical cancer. The Colposcope had flaws when it came to sexual-assault investigations: The camera could not focus well, it could not shoot at super-high resolution, it was big and clumsy, and it relied on film.

With digital photos, it is cheaper and easier for doctors, investigators and lawyers to share the photos, said Ward Allen, a consultant for SDFI-TeleMedicine, the Beverly Hills, Calif., company that demonstrated the technology Thursday.

Paulette Barlow, the sexual-assault nurse-examiner coordinator at Mercy, said the hospital did 29 sexual-assault exams last year. The Colposcope did its job, she said, but it was time-consuming, because nurses needed to be thorough to ensure they had good images.

"We haven't had problems in the past," Barlow said. "We've just had more problems obtaining usable pictures."

It is difficult for sexual-assault victims to come forward and even more difficult for them to submit to photographs of private parts, said Jen Shupe, the advocacy services coordinator at Sexual Assault Services Organization. The new camera will make that experience less intrusive and produce better evidence for prosecutors, she said.

If more victims experience success in the criminal-justice system, that will give other victims the confidence to come forward, Shupe said.

"Anytime you give the community better tools to do its job, the whole community benefits," she said.

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