Crime scene training brings agencies together
by JESSICA L. FINCH Associate Editor

Members of police agencies from around Western New York took part in a Crime Scene Investigation course held recently at the Amherst Police Department headquarters.

When investigators and detectives walk into crime scenes around Western New York they will be more prepared for the task in front of them.

(See editorial on page four)

Fourteen agencies from three counties attended the Crime Scene Investigation course at Amherst police headquarters earlier this month.

Amherst Capt. Michael Melton, who has directed the course with University at Buffalo Police Inspector Dan Jay for years, said the course prepares officers to handle major crime cases.

The annual program has grown in its 18-year existence from a one-day seminar to a week's intensive course.

The course includes mock field work of five staged crime scenes, investigated by five teams. All the scenes were interlinked by pieces of physical evidence.

"What we are trying to establish is working as teams with people you don't know. Communication is important. With today's society and mobility of crime, you could work with anybody, anywhere," Melton said.

He elaborated, saying that a robbery and shooting could happen in Amherst, in which the suspect flees into Tonawanda, runs on foot, steals a car and drives into Buffalo. In that scenario, three agencies are now involved.

Melton said the training course has proved successful.

"In one incident, one of the attendees, a captain in charge of a detective bureau in another county, went back to work and in less than a month dealt with a shooting," he said. "From his training he got the scene under control and ultimately recovered very valuable evidence."

Melton said there was another incident where one of the attendees responded to a drive-by shooting four months after attending the course.

"His comment back to me was it was just like being in the school. In that particular session we set up a drive-by shooting scenario," Melton said. "He said he looked at the scene and knew exactly what he had to do; it just fell into place."

Specialized training is the goal of the program, including K-9 units, fingerprint lifting, collecting DNA, photography, firearms, and death investigation. Attendees also observed the mock crime scenes from the Erie County Sheriffs' Air 1 helicopter. Melton said a crime scene from the air is completely different from being on the ground.

"They can see how to get in and out and how they relate to each other," he said about looking down on a crime scene.

Crime scene investigation has gained popularity with TV shows such as "CSI" and "Numbers." Melton said the course is similar in that investigators draw on the resources around them, approach the scenes logically, document the scene and recover evidence - preserving and packaging it for the lab.

One of the differences is that investigators don't usually interview the suspects.

Two of the major cases in recent Western New York history that brought agencies and crime scenes together were the Bike Path Rapist and the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, Melton said.

"What's really important about this course is agencies coming together for common problems and knowing they need to communicate, basically putting our heads together for big cases," he said.

Amherst's Major Case Crime Scene Unit was started in 1979, when the new headquarters on John James Audubon Parkway was built.

"The Amherst facility has been one of the leaders in crime scene investigation," he said. "The course has gone through changes and (is) constantly upgrading."

Attending this year's course were investigators and detectives from Niagara Falls, Evans, Batavia, Amherst, Tonawanda, Lancaster, Lackawanna, Hamburg, West Seneca and Lockport police departments, Erie County Sheriff's Department, Erie County Central Police Services Laboratory and Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Department.

Instruction was provided by resources from Amherst police, New York State Police, UB police, Erie County Sheriff's Air 1, Niagara County Sheriff's K-9 unit, Erie County Medical Examiners Office, and the county's Central Police Services Forensic Lab, the county district attorney's office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.