| rdfs:comment | - A special Applied Phlebotinum used primarily in Police Procedural dramas. No matter what sort of clue the Crime Scene lab has found (blood, wire, rope, oil, perfume, etc), somebody has manufactured a database designed to search through them all. Not only that, our heroes at the crime lab have purchased a copy of this software, the interface devices to input the data in question and have acquired the expertise to use this software (which has so far never been used in another one of their cases) with 100% accuracy on the first attempt. See Akashic Records for a related but older trope.
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| abstract | - A special Applied Phlebotinum used primarily in Police Procedural dramas. No matter what sort of clue the Crime Scene lab has found (blood, wire, rope, oil, perfume, etc), somebody has manufactured a database designed to search through them all. Not only that, our heroes at the crime lab have purchased a copy of this software, the interface devices to input the data in question and have acquired the expertise to use this software (which has so far never been used in another one of their cases) with 100% accuracy on the first attempt. It should be noted that some of these "magical databases" actually exist, and are in use by various agencies, though they aren't quite as stunningly accurate or omniscient as the Police Procedural suggests. In real life, "Data Mining" is a time-consuming task that has to be practiced. Does each agency host a different server? Which ones pull from each other? Are all servers identical? Are there delays in updating the databases? These are all questions the searcher needs to be aware of, and there is no single database that stores 100% of the information. A key aspect of this trope is that there must be a pre-existing compendium of all possible samples of whatever is being identified. In Real Life, forensics can indeed match samples of, say, paint or glass not only down to manufacturer but even to a specific batch, but this requires two samples: one sample from evidence, and another sample to compare against. This also means that in real forensics, the implications of this evidence are different; while crime dramas typically use the Magical Database to find a new lead from trace evidence, real forensics usually confirms identity after the police have already gotten a lead (i.e. the police already suspect the glass came from the suspect's house or workplace and can prove it by comparing them, as opposed to identifying where the suspect lives with no prior knowledge just from the glass sample). Forensics labs also have an out for many of these magical databases, since it's generally believable that they would have a database of common murder weapons or components of weapons. Magical Databases almost always have a Viewer-Friendly Interface. If it's on paper or supernatural, it's a Great Big Book of Everything. See Akashic Records for a related but older trope. Examples of Magical Database include:
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