Thank you for visiting us. The intent of this blog is to provide the most comprehensive, up-to-date training in crime scene investigation available on the Internet today. Present plans include our making at least one post per week. Once we are up and running, and the interest is there, we will add additional posts with greater frequency.
After a thorough search for information on actual crime scene training sites we found that they are few and far between. Most of what is available are in Website formats, so it isn't practical for those viewing these training sessions to offer any interaction with us. A blog makes that possible, so we encourage our readers to post comments--pro or con--about what you find on these pages.
And of course, we are open to your suggestions, tips and ideas too.
As time goes on, we will cover a great many topics such as: latent print development (powders and chemicals); collection of micro-particle evidence; physiological fluid identification and collection; blood spatter analysis; gunpowder particle identification and collection; impression evidence collection (two and three-dimensional impressions); narcotics and dangerous drugs identification and collection; serial number restoration; proper handling and collection of electronic devices like cell phones, computers, pagers, iPods, iPads, etc. and a great deal more.
The CSI Effect has warped the image of the public at large with incredible crime solving techniques. When TV show producers have a huge budget to gain viewers, it hurts those agencies who do not have the funds and resources to solve a murder in 48 minutes. The down and dirty facts are that solving a crime involves many hours of evidence locating, recording and collection. It's a tough job--but someone has to do it.
Crime scene investigation involves more than high tech gadgets, it involves a large measure of common sense. We can teach you the basics--what to look for, how to collect it and how to evaluate it. But there is a certain intuitive sense that goes along with the task. If you have it, you will be a hero among your peers. If you don't--then you'll have to develop it. We hope that we can help you with that--to give you--the CSI, the motivation and the competence to do the job and to do it successfully.
Crime scene investigation is largely a matter of observation. The CSI must put himself into the body of the long-gone perpetrator. How did he get in? What course did he follow through the scene? And even what was he thinking?
Criminals have a blind-sided motivation:
1. They think they can get away with it.
2. They don't believe they will get caught.
You, the CSI, have to prove them wrong on both counts...and you will do it with something called physical evidence. "Book 'em Dano!"
The public view of criminal investigators has evolved over the years. Law & Order was a very popular TV show for years and it's still running--with several offspring. Lennie Briscoe was a legend. How many times did he enter a crime scene and take a pencil and shove it down the barrel of a murder weapon to pick it up? God rest his soul. Lennie is gone but a new cadre of detectives have taken his place.
The point is that we have to re-educate the public so they will not expect miracles from law enforcement in particular--and specifically the CSI.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE...
Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more, bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value.
More mistakes are made in crime scene investigation than any other part of police work." The person who wrote that is long gone but the sentiment is still true today.
Please note: The first lesson to be posted is An Introduction to Latent Fingerprints. Check the Latent Print page. You are encouraged to download a free training manual: "Overview of Latent Development Techniques"
You may also download specific sections of a catalog of Crime Scene Investigation Equipment
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