Week Ten - Recruit Sebastian

Monday began with a whole day of lectures. The covered topics consisted of Death and other Major Crime Scene Investigations. We learned how to secure a crime scene and what to look for when deciding whether a crime actually occurred.  From homicide, to suicide, and accidental deaths; several factors go into the decision making process that determine if the Crime Scene Investigation Unit is warranted. After death, the body goes through several stages, which can help determine the time of the person’s passing. Depending on the body’s rigor (stiffness) and lividity (settling of the blood), the time of death can be narrowed down to several hours, but in most cases days.

 The afternoon was spent on building searches. There are several factors that go into searching a building and as you can imagine, they are very dangerous. Hopefully, for next week’s blog, I will have several pictures from the practical. The most interesting part of that class was when we got to see the K9’s in action. I cannot say much but that they were fascinating to observe.

Tuesday and Thursday were once more spent on the range and with arrest control. For firearms, we were thrown into scenarios and let’s just say, we did not do too well with the added pressure/stress. We paid with running up and down the hill, several pushups as well as burpees. That was a small price to pay as if it were real life there would be a whole slew of different consequences. Arrest control consisted of a review of the previous week’s skills and Thursday, my group spent the afternoon at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds with drill training. We were confronted with several low key scenarios and had to apply our arrest control skills that we had learned this far.

Wednesday was another day of lectures in the morning, with a wellness lab at noon. We did the fitness test from our first week of class, and the gains everyone made were enormous. Everybody is getting in great shape and stronger by the week. We were released early on that day, but came back at night for Family night. It was great to see everybody’s significant other and family members, and although there was not much time, I think everyone enjoyed it. Friday, imagine that, there was no test but just another day of lecture. The afternoon was spent going over handling In-progress calls and another wellness lab. Next week will be interesting as we will only be in class on Friday and have practicals for the rest of the week. On to week 11 and the half way point in the Academy.