Junior CSI Academy

JUNIOR CSI ACADEMY

2008 Class “Digging for Evidence”

(Taken from April 4, 2008’s Carroll County Times)

CAMP TO TEACH YOUTHS CSI METHODS

Members of the Sykesville Police Department are hoping a crime scene investigation camp geared towards middle school students will help strengthen the relationship between youths and authority figures in the area.

The Department is planning its first Sykesville Junior CSI Academy, a four-week program to be held in June, where students will learn firsthand how evidence is collected, stored and used to solve crimes.

Cpl. Dave Lewis, the Department’s evidence technician, said the Sykesville police collect the same types of evidence as departments in larger jurisdictions; blood, fingerprints, tool marks and more.

You name it, we’ve collected it,” Lewis said.

He said he is looking forward to teaching students the procedures involved in investigating crime scenes, from conducting grid searches to dusting for fingerprints.

The free program is slated to begin June 4 and will be held four consecutive Wednesdays that month. Each session will be about two hours.

The camp is open to any middle school student in the county, with preference given to children in Sykesville, said Chief Williams, Jr., of the Police Department.

Because of funding constraints, participation will be limited to 30 students, he said.

On the last day of the camp, a mock crime scene will be set up at the Little Sykes Railroad off Sandosky Road to test what the participants have learned, Lewis said.

Lewis said the biggest goal in holding th4 camp is to get children to see the police department as a friend, not an enemy. According to Williams, adolescents’ attitude toward the police tends to shift from the former to the latter around the time they enter middle school.

Having positive interaction with police can help deter juvenile crime, which appears to be on the rise in the Sykesville area, Williams said.

He said that while it is difficult to pinpoint a total number of crimes committed by youths in the past year, the Department has investigated dozens of cases of vandalism and misdemeanor thefts, which are typically committed by juveniles. There were also 30 community complaints about juvenile activity in 2007, he said, and five Sykesville Middle School students were arrested this January for possession of marijuana on school grounds.

In addition to addressing juvenile crime, Lewis said he also wants to show students that investigations are much more complicated and a lot less glamorous than what is shown on popular crime shows on television.

Investigators must keep a precise record of everything they collect from a scene, and the Department has to account for all evidence from the minute it takes custody until the court date, Lewis said.

“You can’t just throw it in a bag,” he said.