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Northeast hosts crime scene investigation contest

Northeast hosts crime scene investigation contest

NORFOLK - Future crime scene investigators put their skills to the test in a two-day contest held at Northeast Community College recently. The Northeast Community College Spring 2017 Crime Scene Contest consisted of eleven teams of three to five students each. Teams from Northeast Community College and Wayne State College competed.

“I was very pleased and proud at how well the students did in our first crime scene contest here at Northeast,” said Matt McCarthy, criminal justice director and instructor at Northeast. “The students acted professionally and took the event very seriously.”

McCarthy said that in each contest, teams gathered evidence, sketched a crime scene, located evidence, bagged evidence, took photographs and wrote a crime scene report, all within a one-and-a-half-hour time limit. Teams were judged on how well each task was completed as well as teamwork and communication in the scene itself.

Professionals from the law enforcement field and Northeast alumni served as judges in the contest.

The Northeast Community College team of Teanne Edens, Cloverdale, CA, Morgan Reigle, Stanton, and Shelby Schmidt, West Point, took first place in the advanced division. Northeast’s Matt Henry, Norfolk, Joe Miller, Norfolk, and Quintin Pickering, Cozad, took second.

In the basic division, a team from Northeast’s South Sioux City extended campus consisting of Calvin Grage, South Sioux City, Michael Mogensen, South Sioux City, Tyler Nguyen, Sergeant Bluff, IA, Nicholas Schmith, Dakota City, and Cristina Topete, Sioux City, IA, earned first place. Wayne State College’s Jessica Dobias, Hanna Knox, Cheyenne Lowmar and Andy Vasquez came in second place.

McCarthy said the event would not have been possible without corporate sponsor Arrowhead Forensics, which provided necessary supplies for the competition, and Northeast’s Law and Public Safety Lab.

“This is exactly the type of activity that we envisioned when we created the Law and Public Safety Lab last year, and it is a great example of the commitment that Northeast Community College shows to the criminal justice program.”

McCarthy said that Northeast plans to host another crime scene investigation contest this fall to coincide with the Career Opportunities and Professions Seminar (COPS) conference. At the conference, high school and college students have the opportunity to interact and learn more about several criminal justice professions from local, county and state criminal justice representatives.

 

PHOTO CUTLINE - Crime Scene Investigation

 

Northeast Community College students Teanne Edens (left), Cloverdale, CA, Shelby Schmidt (center), West Point, and Morgan Reigle, Stanton, analyze a simulated crime scene in the Law and Public Safety Lab on the Norfolk campus as part of the Northeast Community College Spring 2017 Crime Scene Contest. Edens, Reigle and Schmidt took first place in the contest’s advanced division. (Courtesy Northeast Community College)

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