Underwater crime scene investigation

[Ber Rabbit]

Worst case scenario you end up doing what many college grads (this one included) did, get a degree with some special focus somewhere and work in an entirely different industry
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Gary D.]

I don’t know what evidence collection is like but it sounds like mostly snatch and grab.

That is the way a lot of teams treat it just because of the lack of training and knowledge. They think evidence collection is finding someone or something and bringing it to the surface.

The only difference between an investigation of land and in the water is the environment you are working in. If you spent 8 hours on an investigation on land plan on spending that long or longer in the water.
The big difference is very slow movement in the water and near perfect buoyancy control.

Two of us spent a lot of hours looking for an object that investigators suspected my have been in the water from a suspected homicide. We found it at around 10’ on a rocky silt covered lake bank and it helped get a conviction. The object couldn’t have been much smaller. It was a broken piece from the suspect’s fingernail.

That could only happen with a very pro and supportive dive team department.

What do you plan on doing with your CJ Degree?

Gary D.

 

[vablackwater]

The goal of evidence collection in diving is to add to the investigation and bring the investigation to a different realm. How you handle, recover and document what you find, as well as recognizing you are a part of the chain of custody all come into play.

I went through the Underwater Criminal Investigators program that James Croft mentioned in his post... an awesome and rewarding course with a very experienced and credible instructor. You need to be associated to a team engaged in Public Safety Diving Operations (Police, Fire, EMS, Military). Gary D. nailed a key dynamic, public safety diving and underwater evidence collection is a team evolution. A lot more to it than a grab and go...

 

[mike2885]

What do you plan on doing with your CJ Degree?

Gary D.

im still unsure what i want to do but then i heard about this program and i took an interest. it sounds like it would be really intresting. i would like to try and do something federal i really dont want to be a local police officer.