CSI Trumann: TPD gets pointers on latest crime scene investigation techniques

Trumann Police Department officers Gary Henry and Dale Parker practice lifting fingerprints during a three-day training crime scene investigation training seminar held at the Trumann Police Department Firearms and Training Facility. (Democrat Photo/Mark Randall)

There weren't any black Hummers or men in $5,000 suits with $500 sunglasses. But the scene in Trumann last week of police officers dusting for prints and taking pictures of a mock crime scene looked like something out of the TV police drama "CSI."

Nearly 30 law enforcement representatives from across Arkansas gathered last week in Trumann at the Trumann Police Department Firearms and Training Facility for a three day training seminar on the latest crime scene investigation techniques.

Officers received hands on training lifting fingerprints and taking pictures of a mock crime scene using digital photography.

Trumann Police Chief Larry Blagg said locating and processing evidence at a crime scene is one of the most important elements of police work.

"When we go to a crime scene the biggest thing we are after are photographs and fingerprints," Blagg said. "Suspects and witnesses - all that is going to come in to play. But you have to remember, evidence doesn't lie. A fingerprint is true evidence. The truth will come out of that."

The seminar was sponsored by the Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Arkansas system and was taught by detectives from Wisconsin and Michigan.

Blagg said keeping up with the latest crime scene technology is especially important today because jurors expect evidence to be just like they see on those TV shows.

Many of the techniques were new to his officers.

"They are introducing us to some new techniques that we have never really been hands on with," Blagg said. "It's a very intensive class and a very informative class. The instructors are terrific - some of the best I have ever seen -- so our guys are learning a lot."

Blagg said he found the session on digital photography particularly helpful.

Officers had to key in on things like the position of a body and various objects found at the crime scene.

"Pictures don't lie either," Blagg said. "And pictures are better than any memory you can have."

It's very important to take pictures of the scene in the right sequence and to get the right ones, he said.

"It's unbelievable what you can do with a digital camera," Blagg said. "We take pictures as we walk up and as we leave it. This showed us how to best sequence the pictures and how to take the most detailed pictures. And they stressed quality of the pictures versus quantity and what is important and what is not."

Blagg said TPD is very lucky to have the University of Arkansas be willing to come to a city the size of Trumann.

Normally, the department would have to pay to send officers to this kind of training and wouldn't be able to have this many officers participate.

The training is provided at no cost to law enforcement.

"We might normally be able to send one guy," Blagg said. "We're getting seven. And the training is so good that it is like going from driving on a gravel road to pavement. We can make it on a gravel road, but it has been so much more convenient having that paved road. That's the way I look at it."

Represenatives from Hoxie, Pocahontas, Pine Bluff, Russellville, Searcy and Sherwood Police Departments also took part in the training.

It's the second time the Criminal Justice Institute has come to Trumann. The city hosted a two day drug interdiction session last year in which over 40 officers took part, including 14 from TPD.

Trumann will host another session in March.

"They said the last class was one of the fastest to ever fill up and one of the most productive," Blagg said. "They keep asking us if they can do another one here. We're already on the schedule for another one in March."