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U B L I S H E D
theNOWnewspaper Business2Business
British Columbia, Canada - Oct 2005
Session gives youth a look at 'CSI' work
by Rita Alterio, Professional Writers Association of Canada
The presentation to youth began with a warning.
"There are a few gory slides," said Dave Richard from the Delta Police Forensics ID unit, speaking at the George Mackie Library on Sept 30. "That's my world. I've seen death by decapitation, strangulation, gunshot."
The boys sitting in the front row lean forward, and one of them whispers "sweet".
Richard asks the group of about 25 teens aged thirteen and over -- with the odd adult intruder -- what they think of when he says forensics or CSI.
They responded with enthusiasm, peppering him with words such as "dead bodies", "blood" and "DNA".
"The first thing people seem to think of is dead bodies," said Richard. "But it's more than just dead bodies."
His powerpoint presentation flashes his own definition on the screen: science in the service of justice.
The duties of a forensics officer, said Richard, includes crime scene investigation plus photographing crime scenes, investigating any fatal or serious motor vehicle accident, analyzing video surveillance tapes, collecting DNA and providing forensic art services.
Today, he astutely focuses on crime scene investigation and forensic art.
When investigating a crime scene, a search is made for "any type of evidence". In a murder due to a break in, the criminal could have stepped on some broken glass and taken a piece of that glass with him. He could have left a fabric fibre from his clothes on the victim. A "really, really important part of the process" is to wear a new pair of gloves when collecting every new piece of evidence in order to prevent contamination.
Like many businesses caught in a transition phase, Cornerstone is facing challenges that come from external factors which are beyond the organization's control.
Sometimes the crime scene involves only skeletal remains.
A hand shoots up and a brown capped boy asks, "What if, like, you find a bone and, you know, you think it's human but, like you know, think it might be a bear or animal or something."
That has in fact happened, says Richard. Forensics wasn't sure if a bone was human or animal, but the expert who they turned to immediately recognized the bone as animal.
Unlike the hit T.V. show CSI, where the actors are experts on every conceivable aspect of crime investigation, there are actually many specialists that forensics turns to for accurate information.
Also unlike CSI, a perfect set of fingerprints are not necessarily found at a crime scene. Yet fingerprints are better than DNA for evidence. Identical twins have the same DNA, but different fingerprints. Fingerprints with a scar are even better, as they are immediately recognizable. A local thief has been caught everytime because of a scarred thumb fingerprint which he leaves behind at all of his crime scenes.
Fingerprints are identified by a forensics officer and not by a computer, although a computer can narrow the possible fingerprint matches. Canadian forensics officers cannot make an error in fingerprint ID in their training -- an error on the fingerprint portion of the forensics training test means never being able to work in the field.
After hearing this fact, a collective gasp goes up from the teen crowd and a boy with furrowed brow asks, "Can you take the test again?"
"No," says Richard.
Next were slides featuring blood and bugs which first silenced the fascinated room. Then the girls ewhed and the boys imaginations turned to violence -- "no, we can't beat the crap out of suspects."
The day ended with forensic art.
"Here's the only true friend I have," said Richards, bringing forth a plastic skull. For demonstration purposes he had just begun to reconstruct the face using putty on the skull.
A murmur of admiration swept through the crowd.
"I have a cool job," said Richard.
"Man, you do," said a boy punching his fist in the air.
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