Good forensic training yields real results

An article over at Evidence Technology Magazine highlights how getting good Forensic training can have a real impact on cases. The article explains how a CSI used non conventional technique when investigating a crime. The use of which helped in the crime being solved. The article details a bank robbery. A note was left and that note was tested for fingerprints. The process used was a slightly less conventional method than typically used for paper. The Investigator used magnetic powder, not a chemical like ninhydrin. That finger print eventually lead to a suspect and an arrest was able to be made.

Had the investigator used ninhydrin it is likely the case would still have been solved. Getting the finger print is not what is unique here. What is unique is that this investigator learned a new way to so a task. A way she felt more comfortable doing it. Then she took that new skill and used it.

By taking a forensic training class she expanded her skill set. As some of my co-workers would say she put more tools in her mental tool box. Then she also used them for a real result.

I know far too many people who look down on training. They feel they learn by doing. Yes many of us do learn by doing, but I want to learn it before I at a crime scene. So this leads to a forensic training conundrum. How do you put on a good training that gets people real hands on skills?

The answer is easy. Make the class less about some “expert” standing in front of the group lecturing endlessly. Train people in the skill by letting them do the skill. Explain it, demonstrate it, then have the learners do it.

So why don’t more Forensic Training classes do it this way?

I think that a majority of forensic trainers do. But college professors do not. So when our police officers think about going to training, they assume college class. We need to make them thing that training classes are not college classes. A good forensic training class can be an enjoyable hands-on experience.

Pre-employment education is very different than specialized training that currently employed personal should be going to. I think that many training instructors do a good job of getting their training to be meaningful. We are not perfect yet but I think we need to remind our instructors that the better they make class, the better the learners will be able to use the skills.