What’s New? October 2018 Edition

October 2018

Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice Headlines from Across the Nation

To keep up on all that is happening across the country, click on the link below read news articles related to law enforcement/criminal justice.

https://www.policeone.com/law-enforcement-news/

 

Changes/New Faces at the Academy

There have been some changes at the Academy and several new employees have recently joined the Academy. Please join us in welcoming them to the NCJA team:

Dan Worley (Salemburg): Many of you are no doubt familiar with Dan Worley. Dan has been promoted to the position of Senior Developer and will bring with him considerable skill and experience. If you get a chance, please congratulate Dan on his promotion. Dan will be working in and supervising the Academy’s research and development team. This unit will assist with various research projects related to lesson plan development as well as other related projects. Dan and his team will also revise current lesson plans and take on the task of creating and writing a new curriculum.

Jessica Bullock (Salemburg): Jessica has joined the Academy as an Instructor/Developer focusing on the areas of Instructor Training and Interview & Interrogation. Jessica’s previous experience includes teaching State and Local Government, Gang Identification and Validation, GangNet, Situational Awareness, Motivational Interviewing, Evidence-Based Practices, Carey Guides, and Case Planning. She served as a Chief Probation/Parole Officer in Wake County. Jessica was also a Gang Officer, a Sex Offender Officer and a member of the Gun and Gang Violence task force. Jessica’s educational background includes a B.S. in Criminal Justice, a B.A. in History, and an M.S. in Criminal Justice. When she is not working, Jessica enjoys photography, cooking/baking, hiking, kayaking, traveling and reading. She has two brothers, two sisters and a dog named Oreo.

Kevin Tingen (Salemburg): Kevin has been hired as an Instructor/Developer at the Salemburg campus. He will be Coordinating/Developing MDP, Background Investigations and Budgeting classes. Kevin is a former captain with the Cary Police Department and retired after 28.5 years. He has a Master’s of Entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University and a B.S. in Social Science/Government from Campbell University. Kevin is married with four adult children, has two grandchildren (and two more on the way) and two dachshunds. His hobbies include playing mandolin and making homemade wine.

Merrily Cheek (Salemburg): Merrily has joined the Academy as an Instructor/Developer. Merrily, her husband and four kids are from Orange County. Merrily completed her undergraduate work in Criminal Justice from Appalachian State University and went on to receive a Master’s in Public Administration from West Virginia University and a law degree. Her work history includes serving as Director of Upshur County, WV Community Corrections, Research and Planning Specialist /BLET Administrator with the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Division, and Planning and Development Coordinator within the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, to include serving as an instructor in the Training Division. Merrily is looking forward to this new challenge and to becoming part of the team tasked with maintaining the integrity and quality of training NC criminal justice professionals.

Paul Phelan (Edneyville): Paul Phelan joins us from the state of Florida where he has sixteen years of experience in various assignments including investigations, SWAT, and Crisis Negotiations.   His courses of instruction include critical incident stress management, peer support, hostage negotiations, domestic violence, and firearms. He is also a criminal justice adjunct instructor for Florida State University and possesses certifications as a crisis/hostage negotiator from the National Tactical Officers Association and the State of Florida.  Paul’s curriculum will include sexual crimes related courses and the crisis/hostage negotiations course.

William “Bill” Loucks (Edneyville): William “Bill” Loucks has sixteen years of experience from the Metro Nashville Police Department in Tennessee where he served in various capacities as a detective, narcotics investigator, and gang investigator.  His vast experience led to working many cases with the DEA, ATF, FBI, and US Marshals.  Bill’s expertise and knowledge in methamphetamines and opiates has resulted in many presentations across the country to diverse audiences such as law enforcement officers, district attorneys, judges, medical personnel, and the general public.  Furthermore, Bill has developed several gang and narcotics curriculums for the Tennessee POST that mandates law enforcement training in Tennessee.  Bill’s curriculum will include the narcotics and gang investigations courses.

 

Training Catalog for July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019

We wanted you to know that our new training dates are now available for July 2018 to June 2019. To view the classes on our website, visit: http://ncja.ncdoj.gov/Courses-Offered-by-NCJA.aspx. Registration for ALL our classes is on our portal: https://ncja-portal.acadisonline.com.

Annual General Instructor Update Training Course

2018 General Instructor Update: Criminal Justice Instructional Leadership –

Don’t forget, if you are an instructor you must take this one-hour online course to keep your certification. To register for the course, go to: NC Justice Academy Training Portal.

 

New (or added) Courses since our Training Catalog with Openings

If you are interested in learning about new courses that have been added or to discover which classes still have openings, please click on the link below:

http://ncja.ncdoj.gov/Course-Offerings-(A-Z).aspx

 

2018 In-Service Courses Available Online

We have several of the 2018 in-service topics available online and more courses will be added each month. For a complete list of online courses, go to:

https://ncja-portal.acadisonline.com/acadisviewer/login.aspx. To register for a course, go to: NC Justice Academy Training Portal and follow the directions. These 2018 In-service Courses are currently available online:

• 2018 Strategies to Improve Law Enforcement Interactions and Relationships with Minority Youth (LE)
• 2018 Equality in Policing (LE)
• Law Enforcement Intelligence Update (LE)
• Officer Safety: Surviving Planned Attacks Against Law Enforcement Officers (LE)
• Detention Intelligence Update )Det)
• Equality in Detention Practices (Det)
• Equality in Policing (Tele)
• Law Enforcement Intelligence Update (Tele)

 

This Month’s Featured Article:

“The Critical Role of Crime Scene Investigators in an Investigation”

By: Casson Reynolds, NCJA West (Edneyville)

Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs) are commonly tucked away at a law enforcement agency from the rest of the personnel.  They are sequestered with their drying chambers, fumes from various chemicals, odors from collected evidence, and shelves of equipment and evidence packaging materials.  They will be called upon to respond to a scene and process for evidence, reconstruct and analyze, document and collect.  Once finished at the scene, they return to the agency to submit a report of their findings, send evidence to the crime lab for testing, and prepare for the next call.  However, one of the most important aspects of any investigation is commonly overlooked.  CSIs are not personally asked for their insight, thoughts on leads, or hypothetical situations after the initial on-scene investigation.

As crime scene investigations and forensics continues to grow within the criminal justice system and law enforcement, many agencies are still working to determine how they should incorporate CSI personnel into their investigations.  Whether a CSI is sworn or not, they have a different mentality than many other detectives/investigators and can provide additional perspectives and theories on cases.  CSIs should be viewed as an integral part of the investigations of an agency and should be consulted at several stages of the investigation as well as being part of any final case review.

CSIs are more than individuals trained in taking photographs and collecting evidence.  CSIs need to understand several aspects of forensic science to include: latent print development and collection, photography, measuring and sketching, searching and evidence collection, bloodstain pattern analysis, shooting incident reconstruction, recovery of buried remains, medico-legal death investigations, pattern matching, alternative light sources, full-spectrum imaging, chemical processing, crime scene reconstruction, forensic lab capabilities, potential and fleeting evidence, etc.

It is unlikely that an investigator will know everything that a crime scene investigator accomplished and discovered based on their report.  Ideally, the detective and CSI would have time to sit down together and discuss the case and the possible directions it could take.  Many times aspects of a report will be overlooked or “breezed” through because it will not seem important to the detective; however, as the case continues that one puzzle piece may have been sitting there in a report or in the mind of a crime scene investigator all along.  CSIs think differently than detectives.

Agencies with a dedicated forensics or crime scene units have a strong advantage in working crime scenes and should work to incorporate this specialized knowledge and skill into a fully comprehensive investigative unit.  It is important that investigations work with crime scene investigators to solve cases and be open to their input and interpretation.  It is highly encouraged that crime scene investigators are included in weekly discussions of the progress of cases and potential directions of investigations.

The evidence based approach of a CSI enhances an investigation and provides scientifically supported opinions.  A detective should go to a CSI and pose to them theories and scenarios about the incident and crime.  The CSI, in turn, should either state that the evidence confirms a detective’s scenario, disproves a detective’s scenario, or cannot be confirmed or disproved based on the evidence.  The CSI should be able to support their opinions or insight on the evidence and the aspects of the crime scene.  The CSI may need to take the detective’s scenario and form a specific testable hypothesis and conduct experiments in order to provide a valid opinion.

The crime scene investigators should especially be consulted prior to the final case reports and should submit their own final forensic case report.  The final forensic case report would brief their actions in the case and specifically highlight actions taken after the initial scene processing and where the evidence led.  This final forensic case report would tie all of the evidence together and address many of the hypothetical or case related theories that evidence and testing proved or disproved.

The training and education of crime scene investigators and detectives regarding a mutually beneficial workplace environment is key moving forward with today’s enhanced and fast moving crime scene investigations and abilities.  CSIs should attend general investigations courses; detectives should attend CSI courses; and the administration at agencies should facilitate and encourage a group approach to ensure a thorough investigation.

 

Job Postings

Our Job Bank webpage is one of our most viewed pages. To see current job openings, click on this link: http://ncja.ncdoj.gov/Job-Bank.aspx. If your agency has job openings, please complete the “Job Posting Template” and we will be glad to advertise it for you on our website.

 

Remember to like us on Facebook and Twitter to get daily updates and pictures from some of our classes.

Please feel free to call or email me with your suggestions for training. We are here for you!

 

Trevor Allen, Director

910-525-4151 x210

 

Interested in Submitting an Article for the Newsletter?

In this edition of the newsletter, we are featuring an article by Casson Reynolds (NCJA-Edneyville) on Crime Scene Investigators. If you are interested in submitting an article for the newsletter, please email Michael Cummings (mcummings@ncdoj.gov) or Jeffrey R. Zimmerman (jzimmerman@ncdoj.gov). Articles should be no more than 1,000 words.