April 27, 2009

From TheKCGuy

Last week at the Prairie Village Citizen Police Academy two detectives spoke the entire time about topics related to investigations. They covered a range of topics, but the most interesting were probably their interviewing and interrogation techniques and how they process crime scenes. While they do handle many rather severe types of crimes, Prairie Village doesn't have too high of an incidence of missing persons and homicides, so much of what they deal with are property crimes and burglaries.

We got to hear a few stories of interesting crimes that have happened around Prairie Village over the years. The class always seems to dig these because it's like an episode of COPS or Law and Order taking place in your neighborhood. They also kept us pretty captivated by describing how they do interrogations and get suspects to confess. It's often the only way they can make a case. We got to watch a video of a recent interview where an obviously guilty suspect began by denying any involvement. By the end of the 20 minute interview, he had admitted to committing all elements of the felony crime necessary for the District Attorney to make a case. Finally, we got a demonstration of fingerprinting. While DNA is quickly becoming the most valuable tool used to place a person at a crime scene, fingerprinting is still heavily used. It's always cool to see them lift a print off of a surface and be able to use it to identify the person that left it.

We were all thankful for the detectives who spent so much time with us. It was not only interesting and entertaining, but also educational. I learned a few things from this class:

• Always ask for a lawyer. These guys can make you admit to stuff that you probably haven't admitted to yourself yet.
• Write down the serial numbers on your electronics. That's probably the only way you'd ever get them back if they were stolen.
• Get a dog. It's better than an alarm or a handgun on keeping the crooks out of your house.
• Cops see and hear stuff that you don't want to.

We have two more classes at Citizen Police Academy. Stay tuned for details.