Tricks of the Trade

With part-time Tell City Police Department officer Christopher Faulkenberg watching, Cpl. Marty Haughee dusts a fingerprint on a car parked outside the police station. A day-long training session on crime-scene management and evidence gathering drew law-enforcement officers from several counties Wednesday. PHOTOS: Vince Luecke

Officers taught how to preserve evidence in the first crucial minutes of crime investigations

TELL CITY - John Allen brushes powder over an empty Diet Coke can, looking for the tell-tale fingerprint of an imaginary suspect. Had the pop container been a clue in a serious criminal investigation, Allen's fingerprinting expertise could have paid off in a conviction.

More than 20 officers from Perry, Crawford and Dubois counties attended a day-long crime-scene training course Wednesday at the Tell City Police Department. Sponsored by the Southwest Indiana Training Council and taught by Oakland City Police Chief Doug Young, the course sought to teach officers advanced evidence-gathering techniques, as well as more-general steps on processing crime scenes in the first critical minutes after police arrive. First-responder officers, Young said, face the responsibility of securing the scene, preserving evidence and even handling witnesses.

A former crime-scene investigator in Austin, Texas, Young said imprinting directions in officers' minds now will pay off when they are called to the scene. "A police officer should, in his mind, already be thinking about the steps he'll need to take when he's called to the scene," Young told Tell City and Cannelton officers, along with county sheriff's deputies and members of Jasper and Crawford County departments.

A responding officer's actions in the first few minutes will improve the chances of solving the case, Young said. For example, crimes involving serious injuries or fires will bring paramedics, first responders and volunteer firefighters into the crime-scene area, he said, making preservation of evidence a top priority. Officers must also guard the scene from curious onlookers and keep any witnesses separated from one another.

"Why do want to separate witnesses?" Young asked during the morning's opening session. An officer in the back of the department's year-old training room responds, correctly, that keeping witnesses apart preserves witnesses' individual recollections of the events.

"Right," Young responds. "You don't want them to talk to each other about what they know."

Oakland City Police Chief Doug Young, left, who taught the course, watches Jasper officer Nathan Schmitt dust another print on the same car.

Using fingerprinting kits donated to their departments by Prosecutor Robert Collins, local officers practiced fingerprinting guns, cans and bottles in the afternoon.

Outside the station, another team of officers lifted other prints purposefully planted on a car. After dusting a thumb print placed on the driver's-side door handle by a News reporter, Cpl. Marty Haughee demonstrated how a specially designed piece of tape is able to capture the print on a white piece of mounting paper. "You're busted," he said.

Tell City Assistant Police Chief Greg Hendershot said fingerprints he has faxed to the FBI have recently helped him either tie criminals captured here to out-of-state crimes or determine a suspect is wanted in another state.

While new officers receive preliminary training in fingerprint and other evidence-gathering techniques during their police-academy training, Tell City Detective Alan Malone said Wednesday's training gives patrolmen confidence in being able to begin the process of preserving and gathering evidence when they arrive at a crime scene.

"It's a good program that teaches them skills they'll definitely use," Malone said. "It makes them more confident."

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