Photo By Thomas Reust | Specialist Mariah Berger from the 97th Military Police Battalion, left, trains with...... read more read more
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A crime took place in the Forsyth community the morning of Aug. 17, 2020. Investigators converged on a house at Hitching Post Road to process the crime scene. They found bullet casings outside and overturned furniture on the patio. Inside the house, a gun lay on the floor with a bottle of whiskey framing the tale of the incident. This crime was an exercise conducted by the Fort Riley Military Police Department training investigators on crime scene processing.
“We set up two rooms to train the two teams,” said Larry Erickson, Chief of Investigations for the Department of the Army Civilian Police (DACP), “We can see if they find everything we have in there.”
The house was made available through a partnership with Corvias.
The two teams consisted of a mix of veteran investigators and police officers preparing for the investigation certification course.
Specialist Mariah Berger from the 97th Military Police Battalion, said although the exercise was hard work, it was worth it.
“I’ve been in the Army for over two years now, and I worked my way to get to military police investigations because it’s what I love to do,” Berger said.
“Today we came out to refresh our skills on crime scenes, and working to fill out our 12 phase outline,” said 97th MP Specialist Michaela Hawthorne. “We are also helping our on-the-job-training personnel before they head out to school. (If they can do this) they won’t have any problems with the tests, and breeze right through the course. For instance, we’re taking photographs of the damage found around the house. And if there was a gun involved, we can photograph where the shells landed. Then we match what we find with the statements from witnesses to see if they match. For instance, let’s say there is a hand and somebody punched the wall. We can take pictures of their arm and fist to match it to the size of the hole in the wall.”
Investigators use a detailed outline and measurements to support a case going to court. This means this type of realistic scenario training is important, said Sergeant Shellbi Springs, from the 89th Military Police Brigade.
“The investigators get hands-on so it’s not just ‘oh I know how to do it based on the regulations’, but actually stepping out and processing evidence that is out (there) like they would in real life,” Springs said.
Those real-life situations can be intense and time-consuming according to Fort Riley Deputy Chief of Police, Shannon Wilson.
“This whole process can take over 10 hours to complete if you do it right,” Wilson a 25-year veteran of military police work said. “There’s a lot of stuff you’re looking for and no one specific thing. For example, let’s talk about initial entry for pictures alone, they’re going to take no less than a dozen pictures of the door before going in. I mean, that’s just one thing, and then, once they get inside, they’re going to look for anything that looks out of place by going through the process step by step.”
The trainers talked through different scenarios and experiences to give more insight to the trainees. One conversation involved the need to respect the privacy of a household during the investigation. Another team talked about recent investigations and how they handled the issues with a complex crime scene nearby.
The systematic steps are what come with the job said Berger.
“You’re able to learn how to speak to people, you’re learning the process of taking photographs, how to bag and tag evidence, and all of the details… “ Berger said. “I just love it.”
Erickson said it all comes together thanks to the partnership between Corvias and Fort Riley.
“Corvias is really good about getting us a training location whenever we need it,” Erickson said. “It’s Fantastic. This type of training is important, and train our investigators to collect evidence that will be seen in court. It will go to the Judge Advocate General, it will go to court martial or the magistrate court. The more details we bring in, the stronger the case is for the prosecution.”
| Date Taken: | 08.20.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2020 18:08 |
| Story ID: | 376462 |
| Location: | FORT RILEY, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 371 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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