I am easily intrigued, especially by things I know nothing about. With that in mind, learning often conjures the idea that one must attend a college or university or specialized technical/vocational school to attain that piece of paper proclaiming you are competent in a given subject such as forensics.
I’m in no way suggesting going cheap on the scientific side of crime-fighting. I am encouraging members of any police agency to innovate and educate where opportunities are unbelievably affordable or…free. Taxpayers will love you for it.
Throughout my police career, I was consistently fascinated by the forensics side of law enforcement investigations. Perhaps it stems from the artist in me—destined for details no matter how long it takes to achieve.
Bingeing on “Forensic Files” when I should have been sleeping before midnight shift? Guilty! “Snapped” was another forensic favorite of mine. Seems wifey-poos think Prestone anti-freeze is undetectable: Oh, snap…how’d they figure out my game?
Given what I know now which I did not know then, I lean more and more toward free online courses in veritable subjects to bolster my marketability. In the context of my law enforcement career, I simply applied and learned police science in the police academy, never really thinking of acquiring skills in advance of what academies teach.
The notion compelled me to search online and, lo and behold, there is a slew of varied courses online from some pretty nifty institutions, including Ivy League sources such as Stanford, Harvard and MIT, among others. How would a police department look at a candidate’s resume and application packet upon which are references to MIT, especially for applicants targeting a career in police forensic sciences? Very handsomely, is the answer.
To clarify, I am not suggesting you somehow amass gobs of tuition funds to afford any Ivy League environ. To the contrary. More and more educational institutions are posting online courses for free. When you finish the course, you are given completion certificates attesting successful passing score(s) on any given subject matter. It does not supplant a college degree but surely bolsters one while improving your police prowess (or any other profession).
Not taking advantage of such allowances is akin to standing on your own toes and wondering why you aren’t sprinting freely.
Police Forensics Units
The first and foremost ingredient in any police forensics unit is conducting the proverbial needle in a haystack search for comparisons. Historically, technicians would melt their eyeballs out sitting for countless hours comparing the finer points (literally) of latent fingerprints —loops, deltas, whirls, arches— to fingerprint cards already on file, crossing fingers that a match would be found and an identified suspect would be nabbed by street cops or detectives working the case.
Nowadays, thanks to technological advancements, the law enforcement profession has the capacity to scan multitudes of fingerprints in scant seconds via the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The machine does the trick while the human monitor hopes for a treat.
(Credit: Facebook/Toledo Police Department)
Here is where I get to tell you how much I suck at computer science and the acumen that goes with it. So, what did I do about it as a cop? I consulted our official Forensics and Evidence Unit guy —as a small agency, we had one in that division— as well as some other cops on the force who happened to be self-taught gurus in…computer stuff.
Notice I said “self-taught” in that last reference. Self-study and hands-on practice benefit the truth seeker and provide mentorship. If he can do it, why can’t I, right? By listening to (and watching) these aficionados, I got to where I needed to go with digital and other investigations.
I am not suggesting I worked magic in my/our digital investigations with a brand of forensic finesse; to the contrary. But I did have a firmer grasp of the workings and relative know-how to better conceive how the suspect(s) committed their electronic crime(s), and that was a feather in the police cap. Police agencies implore “self-initiated activity” so this is just one way to make the brass happy while clearing cases with technical tenacity.
Walking down the educational road was not very difficult at all. Searching the keyword “forensics” and “going green” produced a plethora of sites. One such site is ForensicFocus.com where a thread under “Forensics on a budget” offered some juicy morsels for novices like me.
It compelled me to wonder: Since police budgets are as tight as closed vice grips, wouldn’t it behoove law enforcement agencies to save money (taxpayer dollars) by having their sworn and non-sworn members self-teach on any number of platforms instructing forensics nuances?
I recall my agency’s Forensics personnel constantly studying-up on their chosen discipline, while they were also sent to schools in other states to learn forensic technology and come away with a completion certificate…usually after whopping fees were paid in advance. Indeed, that certificate is necessary to support testimony in a court of law, exhibiting one’s subject matter expert foundation. Free courses provide such supportive documentation as well.
Why not piece some of it together virtually online, for a few (menial) dollars registration cost, or nothing at all? I know taxpayers would get behind that pronto!
Researching material for this article, I came up with a free 7-week online forensics-related course offered by Stanford University titled “Cryptography I” and taught via Coursera. The course synopsis is as follows:
“Cryptography is an indispensable tool for protecting information in computer systems. In this course you will learn the inner workings of cryptographic systems and how to correctly use them in real-world applications. The course begins with a detailed discussion of how two parties who have a shared secret key can communicate securely when a powerful adversary eavesdrops and tampers with traffic. We will examine many deployed protocols and analyze mistakes in existing systems. The second half of the course discusses public-key techniques that let two parties generate a shared secret key. Throughout the course participants will be exposed to many exciting open problems in the field and work on fun (optional) programming projects. In a second course (Crypto II) we will cover more advanced cryptographic tasks such as zero-knowledge, privacy mechanisms, and other forms of encryption.”
I can see how that particular course of study could behoove digital investigations in general and overthrow many white-collar criminal enterprises in particular. Cracking codes is a fascinating indoctrination!
Among its free online educational classes, Harvard University offers a course aptly named “Justice” which “explores critical analysis of classical and contemporary theories of justice, including discussion of present-day applications. Topics include affirmative action, income distribution, same-sex marriage, the role of markets, debates about rights (human rights and property rights), arguments for and against equality, dilemmas of loyalty in public and private life. The course invites learners to subject their own views on these controversies to critical examination.”
As a comparable example, I randomly chose what popped-up in a Google search using “Forensic Science degrees” and plucked Grand Canyon University (GCU) which offers a B.S. in Forensic Sciences. The traditional 102 credits matriculation for a four-year-degree is currently costing $8,250 per semester at GCU.
I am not suggesting denying a four-year degree program. To the contrary, I implore chasing down every available educational option. As mentioned earlier, it carries cred in court. I am encouraging helping oneself to the free educational opportunities on the market in any particular field, in this case, forensic sciences.
The GCU Forensic Science degree encompasses: Chemistry; Human anatomy and physiology; Crime scene processing; Organic chemistry; Pathophysiology; Principals of biochemistry; Genetics; Physical evidence; Physics; Instrumental analysis; Toxicology; Body fluid and DNA analysis among others.
Also, many police departments seek forensic capability in one particular area such as toxicology. Wouldn’t it behoove a candidate interested in just that area to have education specifically pertinent to toxicological expertise, at zero cost?
Reported previously by OpsLens, the FBI, has a current massive hiring push for candidates with STEM degrees to fill an array of forensic science disciplines.
Since there are roughly 18, 500 law enforcement agencies in the United States —and the FBI is only one— there are far more forensic science jobs in state, county and local cop shops.
In line with free online courses in forensics, don’t discount internship opportunities whereby one can work alongside forensic examiners in the mix of police departments embracing the science side. Coupled with any mixture of online courses and/or college-degree study, an internship (work experience) can be one more advantage and a substantive mention upon a resume. (Internships often lead to careers; that is what jumpstarted my police career many moons ago.)
Take advantage of the many free online courses out there and envision yourself in a lab coat helping solve mysteries, breaking cases wide open, and seeing bad guys incarcerated because of detailed investigative sleuthing with the help of gratuity.
