By Sherry — is your summer flying by?
I was at Writers’ Police Academy last weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is such a great conference. Last year when I wrote about the event I said that I was so enthusiastic that my husband might attend. He did and our daughter came with us too. They loved it!
Thursday night there was a panel of medical examiners who spoke. They were fascinating and informative. I always wonder how people can do that job and they said it was because they speak for the dead. It’s their job to tell their story about what happened to them. Also, one of the women speaking said she hate’s it when someone writes in a novel that medical examiners are failed neurosurgeons. She choose to be a medical examiner not because she couldn’t do anything else.
Friday my first class was on retrieving prints from paper. It’s amazing how fingerprints can linger and be brought back. Then we got to go on a tour of Sirchie. It’s the first time they’ve ever allowed civilians (they teach lots of classes to law enforcement groups) to be on their campus and tour their factory. They make many different types of products for law enforcement – from brushes for finding latent prints to helmets to evidence markers.
One of the most fascinating classes was on interrogations. Throw out everything you think you know about them. Most police departments don’t have rooms with two way mirrors. The instructor doesn’t like to sit on opposite sides of the table because he likes to watch body language and the lower body shows stress easily. The best way to gather information is often by asking for a meeting at a coffee shop or stopping at someone’s place of work or home. And while yes, the police can lie to you, they can’t intimidate you. Our instructor said a good interrogator knows that he/she has to become what the person they are interviewing needs them to be so they will talk.
What’s the difference between an interview and an interrogation? In an interview people want to give you information, but in an interrogation they don’t.
I was worried an hour and a half class on footwear evidence would be boring, but boy was I wrong! I was sad when it was over. The instructor’s combination of information and humor made the entire class want more.
I attended fabulous classes about being an undercover cop, a latent prints class (different from prints on paper), murder and mayhem, and firearms. Because a bus was late we got an impromptu class from a former FBI agent who was in on the arrest and search of the Unibomber’s home. They found a live bomb under Ted Kaczynski’s bed while they were searching. And none of us in that class will ever look at carrots the same way again.
Readers: What is exhilarating for you?