VC Biloxi Criminal Justice Students Gain Field Experience, Network with Local Law Enforcement
Posted: Monday, July 27, 2009
It has been an exciting year for the Criminal Justice students at Virginia College's Biloxi, Mississippi, campus. Similar to an episode of the TV show "The First 48," two Criminal Justice teams recently created homicide scenarios complete with staged crime scenes, witness testimony and role playing of an interrogation session. The crime scenes were staged behind the Virginia College building in Biloxi, and included a life-size dead body, blood, hair and fiber evidence, ballistic evidence and clues to the identify of the deceased. The students also created written witness statements and other documents that would be used for a later interrogation. Criminal Justice students worked each crime scene by photographing the evidence and collecting it using standard techniques. Once all the evidence was gathered and the teams began building their cases, they role-played the witnesses and were interrogated by the other team portraying investigators. Both teams identified their victim correctly, identified the possible suspects, and made an arrest of the correct suspect.
The students, along with their instructor, Sheri Bowling, provided training to the members of Gulf Coast Search and Rescue on crime scene recognition and preserving evidence. The students also created a couple of scenarios based on threats searchers might encounter in the woods, such as methamphetamine labs and booby-trapped marijuana fields. After the students set up their crime scenes, they joined a search team that was assigned to a different area to learn how a search team with K9 and mounted (horse) units operate.
In other activities this year, students volunteered to work the SwampPop Festival with Gulf Coast Search and Rescue and Harrison County Sheriff's Department. SwampPop is a Cajun music festival that is the primary fundraiser for Search and Rescue. In return, Gulf Coast Search and Rescue has provided free training for the students on Man Tracking, First Aid and CPR, Land Navigation, Training SAR and Human Remains Detection Dogs, Radio Communications and Managing a Missing Person operation. The students also were able to network with the deputies from five counties along with police from four departments and other emergency service personnel who volunteer with Search and Rescue.
"I am very proud of the Criminal Justice students at Virginia College in Biloxi," Bowling says. "Gulf Coast SAR has taken our students under their wing, offering them training and experiences they would not normally get in college. Search and Rescue has done so because our students have shown their dedication and professionalism at every turn."
The students have also completed security assessments of the school and raised awareness of school security and the dangers of drinking while driving.
Criminal Justice students plan to join the American Criminal Justice Association and create teams to complete at the national conference in crime scene, academic writing, firearms and physical agility. They will also create a mock trial to teach the Search and Rescue K9 Handlers what to expect when they have to testify in court.