12 academy days left and its graduation time! We are so close I can taste it. I can’t believe we are here already. It seemed like only yesterday we were in business attire. The past 18 weeks have flown by.
We are completely finished with the skills side of our training, last Thursday was our final testing for arrest control. We do still, however, have a couple of hurdles ahead of us before we got that badge pinned on our chest. We have one more PT assessment, a five second taser ride (voluntary), and the Lookout Mountain run. Besides that it’s all downhill from here.
Crime scene investigation is the topic for this week. We have 24 hours of everything from crime scene preservation and documentation to finger printing and photography. It is really a lot of fun, and I’m learning a great deal. Investigations are something I would really enjoy doing later on in my career. The whole process fascinates me, the investigators we have here at the Sheriff’s office are very talented and I enjoy studying previous cases that they bring into our lectures for us.
Thursday and Friday is DUI class. From what I understand we have some live subjects come into class, they get drunk and we get to deal with them. I hear it is a very interesting couple of days. I will let you know all about it, and just in case you were wondering all the positions for drunks are filled so save yourself the time of filling out an application!
Showing posts with label accident investigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accident investigation. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Skid Marks
Last week we had a class on accident investigation. This was our first out of the classroom, hands on lecture. We of course had some time in the classroom, learning how to preserve the scene, the steps we go through if we are the first on scene, and also how to judge the speed a vehicle was going by looking at the skid marks on the road and other evidence that is left behind at the scene of a crash.
We had three instructors from the Westminster Police Department teach us, all of them had extensive knowledge on the subject, as well as a lot of experience in the field. We discussed real life accidents, looking at pictures from the scenes, and had explained to us the chain of events that caused the accident based on our instructor's personal investigation.
When we got out of the classroom, our first project was to examine skid marks, this was really cool. One of the instructors got into a patrol car at a safe location, and performed some high speed braking for us. We would then examine the skid marks, judge what mark was left by the rear tires, and what were left by the front tires. We would measure the length of the mark and calculate the speed of the vehicle at time of braking.
The next exercise that was set up was a mock accident. Two vehicles were set up on a public sidewalk, there were skid marks in the road, and we had witnesses to question. Apart from actually having an accident, this was as close to the real thing as they could make.
We were set up into groups, assigned responsibilities and sent on our way. My job, along with my partner Eric, was to take measurements from the accident, judge the point of impact, and relay our info back to the team so we could get a full picture of what happened. Once we had taken all the information, we then went back to the class room to write an accident report form, and decide who was at fault in the accident, and what charge we were going to cite them with.
We had three instructors from the Westminster Police Department teach us, all of them had extensive knowledge on the subject, as well as a lot of experience in the field. We discussed real life accidents, looking at pictures from the scenes, and had explained to us the chain of events that caused the accident based on our instructor's personal investigation.
When we got out of the classroom, our first project was to examine skid marks, this was really cool. One of the instructors got into a patrol car at a safe location, and performed some high speed braking for us. We would then examine the skid marks, judge what mark was left by the rear tires, and what were left by the front tires. We would measure the length of the mark and calculate the speed of the vehicle at time of braking.
The next exercise that was set up was a mock accident. Two vehicles were set up on a public sidewalk, there were skid marks in the road, and we had witnesses to question. Apart from actually having an accident, this was as close to the real thing as they could make.
We were set up into groups, assigned responsibilities and sent on our way. My job, along with my partner Eric, was to take measurements from the accident, judge the point of impact, and relay our info back to the team so we could get a full picture of what happened. Once we had taken all the information, we then went back to the class room to write an accident report form, and decide who was at fault in the accident, and what charge we were going to cite them with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
