Food for thought

[Gary D.]

Here is a TV reenactment of what started out as a vehicle in the water that ended up as a homicide. It was on the New Detectives, titled Betrayed. It was about how Ralph Marcos murdered Nick Howard. This episode shows just how easy it is to murder someone using the water. Had it not been for some on the ball investigators this would have gone down as an accident.

The investigation starts with the divers who hopefully are well trained in criminal investigations and evidence collection. If they arenÃÕ they could help a criminal remain free to strike again.

Gary D.

 

[leam]

Where would you track "underwater crime scene investigation" in the list of trainings a PSD team should have? Around here there are some paid jurisdictions that have LEO divers but most aren't.

Leam

 

[Gary D.]

That's where a LEO team has an advantage over other teams. It's something we do every day as a normal course of our duties. Sure people can be trained to spot, collect and preserve items of evidentiary value but unless you do it a lot those skills just don't get honed enough to be real good at it. Everyone is going to miss stuff no matter how good you are and there could have been a better way to recover it. Some people are going to be better at one type while others are going to be better at others.

I can walk into a burned out building or vehicle and see where it burned hotter in one area than another. But that's about it. I don't know why it burned more there or what caused it so that's where a Fireman comes into play. On the other hand a LEO is going to be much better at examining a body.

Sure you can teach an auto worker, accountant, store manager or aircraft mechanic, just to name a few, to collect and preserve evidence. But they will be about as good as it as having a LEO build a car, do someone's books, manage a store or work on an airplane with the equal amount of training.

Taking UWCSI is very important and needs to be fit in where ever it can. It can even be done on your own to some extent. Having some training is better than none. But remember, the investigation needs to start the minute the phone rings or the pager goes off.

Gary D.

 

[Boater Dan]

Gary:

We are an FD team but I had a member of the State Police who was a former member of their dive team do a class for us on underwater investigations, documentation, evidence preservation, and chain of custody. A number of years ago, our team was called to recover a body in a creek. Our team wanted to bag the hands and the body prior to removal and the detectives on scene told them to just get the body out of the water and they would handle it.

We recently recovered a floating victim who was suspected to be a suicide. Our personnel were questioning why the body was floating in 55 degree water in blue jeans and a t-shirt in less than 12 hours. Again, our personnel wanted to treat the scene as a possible homicide, but from what I was told, they were instructed to just recover the body.

Just because someone is LE, does not make them any more knowledgeable or trained to treat the scene properly. I have more faith in our personnel than I do in some LE. Our policy is to treat everything as a crime once it reaches the recovery phase. Obviously, we do not take the time in the golden 90 minutes!

Dan