Jason Skelton takes the measurement of a footprint found at the mock crime scene. (Sacramento State/Jessica Vernone) More Photos
Make-believe foul play recently occurred in the Division of Criminal Justice’s crime-scene lab. Instructor Stephen D’Arcy, a well-known “criminal mastermind,” concocted this scenario for the students in his upper-division Advanced Criminal Investigation course:
A neighbor told police that she heard two, or maybe three, gunshots next door and a woman’s screams before seeing a car speed away. She doesn’t know who lives at the residence and has seen numerous people come and go. First responders to the scene found the front door standing wide open, no one at home and indications of violence.
D’Arcy, a former Placer County undersheriff and part-time criminal justice instructor at Sac State since 2006, gave his student investigators just 10 minutes to survey the “bloody” crime scene and find the evidence that would help solve the whodunit.
In the bedroom, they discovered obvious blood spatter (in reality, window gel clings from a Halloween store), a shell casing on the bedside table and another on the floor, and a “bloody” shoeprint. However, no one noticed the smashed .40-caliber slug embedded in the upper bedroom wall.
“It’s the No. 1 reason people fail the police academy,” D’Arcy later told the students. “Cops are always looking down. You need to look up, too.”
The students missed other clues, as well. The shell casings were not the same caliber, and the official government letter atop the dining table was addressed to the female occupant.
“The lab gives us the hands-on experience we need, taking the theories we learned in the classroom and applying them,” says Jason Skelton, a criminal justice major who plans to pursue a career in law enforcement. “I really appreciate this. It’s very helpful. I think it’s a must.”
With close to 1,600 students, Sacramento State’s Division of Criminal Justice is the second-largest of its kind in the country. It offers the University’s pre-law advising program and a broad-based curriculum that truly is a liberal arts degree.
The crime-scene lab, set up as a three-room furnished apartment with moveable walls, opened last spring in a former computer laboratory in Alpine Hall. It was a labor of love for division chair Mary Maguire and administrative support coordinator Donna Vasiliou, who scoured thrift shops to furnish the living room, bedroom and dining room. Fred Baldini, dean of the College of Health and Human Services, and students added other homey touches.
“Students appreciate hands-on learning, and the lab allows case studies to come to life,” Maguire says. “It’s one thing (for them) to hear about taking a fingerprint but another entirely to brush the powder, lay down the tape and lift it. They will have had the experience and understand the theory behind it. A two-dimensional process becomes three-dimensional.”
The crime scene lab is outfitted with cutting-edge technology, including cameras to broadcast whatever happens there into Alpine Hall classrooms and the adjacent conference room. Student detectives can practice interrogating “suspects” at an interview table complete with overhead microphone and camera.
“If these students graduate from Sac State and make it through the (police) academy, my hope is that they will do that with more confidence for having had these experiences here for the first time,” Maguire says. “The faculty who teach these classes are former law enforcement, so students can get their questions answered ‘from the field.’ ”
Among the program’s high-profile graduates are Sacramento Police Chief Sam Somers Jr., Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones (who recently announced his bid for a seat in the U.S. Congress), Roseville Police Chief Daniel Hahn, Sacramento State Police Chief Mark Iwasa, former Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully, and former Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel (recently was appointed by Gov. Brown to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training). – Dixie Reid