Area law enforcement officers got a look at the world of forensics from the point-of-view of a crime scene investigator this week at the Cole Auditorium.

Law enforcement personnel updated their knowledge of such crime-fighting tools as fingerprinting, analyzing blood spatter, using chemicals to detect the presence of blood and determining the angle of entry for a bullet.

Patrolman Lonnie McCaskill of the Rockingham Police Department said the class has been very informative, and the fingerprinting techniques and aspects of blood spatter are particularly pertinent for the day-to-day police activities of the department.

“What’s so great about this is you don’t have to travel to Salemburg or somewhere, we can train right here at our own community college,” he said. “That’s what so great about having this grade of a class, and learning all this and getting this broad range of experience, so close to home.”

“It’s been great,” said Forensics Analyst Laura Pettler. “We’ve had about 22 students everyday, and had almost all the agencies represented everyday. We’ve just had a really great turnout.”

Pettler worked with the law enforcement officers in the class to give them the perspective of a district attorney’s office trying to earn a conviction from evidence they collect at the scene of the crime.

For example, Pettler knelt with pairs of law enforcement officials mapping blood spatter and explained how her office uses the data to reconstruct the scene.

“We’re looking at blood stain patterns, and how to get a general idea of where someone might have been from the way that it fell,” Oakboro Police Lt. George Burris said after Pettler discussed his chart with him. “We’re trying to learn the trigonometry part of it, but this is some pretty interesting stuff.”

The class’s instructor, Forensic Supervisor of the Medical Examiner’s Office in Palm Beach County, Florida H.W. “Rus” Ruslander said he explains the techniques in the class, then they are demonstrated for the law enforcement officials before they themselves use the technique.

“The students are really excited about it,” he said. “They’re learning some new things, reinforcing old techniques and they’re sharpening their skills. They’re right there doing the work. We don’t have anyone sitting around watching.”

He explained the hands-on part of the class is essential.

“Most people, when you sit there and listen to something, they get kind of zone ... but it’s human nature that it’s easier to retain something that you’ve done than something you’ve just listened to,” Ruslander said. “When they hear it, and then they do it, we’re reinforcing the training. They also get the instant gratification of doing it and seeing that what we say does work, and it makes them not only more receptive to it, but more willing to use it in the future.”

Ruslander also noted this is the first time training like this has been done in this area.

“I think Richmond Community College is really setting a trend, and they’re going to put themselves on the map,” he said. “This one is basic crime scene, and it is 48 hours of in-class training. We’re going to be having a three-day, 24-hour photography course coming up in May, then we’ll be doing a blood spatter course and a buried body and surface skeleton class coming up this year alone. So they’re learning, taking baby steps, then building up to big steps.”

“I’ve learned a lot of good things,” Albemarle Police Detective Jody Cook said.

He described some of the techniques the group learned to lift and photograph fingerprints.

“We’ve learned a lot of good things that you don’t have to buy expensive equipment for, you can use stuff around the office to lift these prints, and photograph the prints,” Cook said. “It will increase my awareness at a crime scene, and just what is available for me to collect and see.”

“(This training is helpful) especially on the finger printing side of it,” Wadesboro Police Detective Ron Gainey said. “You have crimes scenes such as breaking and entering and larcenies - they leave fingerprints behind. We’re learning some better ways to lift those prints, and hopefully catch somebody.”