3 minute read
Policing students’ crime scene
Crime scene is safe space for students to solve cases
EMMA DUKES reports on policing, diversity and Liverpool Jonhn Moores’ model crime scene
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Staff and students at Liverpool John Moores University may not know it but they have a crime scene under their noses ... but no one’s worried.
It is all in a day’s work for the policing department.
The university has created an extensive model crime scene set, which is available to all LJMU policing and forensics students. It is easily movable and changeable, allowing for a lot of different exercises and activities.
The set is run by Dr Heather Panter, a retired US Detective and the Programme Leader of the Policing and Criminal Investigation department.
After joining Liverpool John Moores, in 2015, Dr Panter had the idea of creating a space for students, to improve their learning.
She told MNL: ‘‘In 2015, I went to the then Vice Chancellor and pleaded to use the vacant area in the attic in the John Foster Building at Mount Pleasant, and so that became our space.
“I wanted to give students a safe space to do practicals and crime scene exercises - you learn more from doing than sitting and listening to lectures.”
The crime scene has recently moved to the Aquinas building, on Maryland Street, and will be receiving further investment.
Dr Panter said: “When I initially started the set up in the attic I received a grant of £4000.
“The new area had been vacant and the ‘higher ups’ noticed the crime scene exercises were very popular with students and thought, we’re not using this area, so let’s get you somewhere else temporarily and then
Image by David Von Diemar via Unsplash.
Dr Heather Panter, Programme Leader MSc in Policing and Criminal Investigations. Image via LJMU.
into an even better place.
“A lot of the equipment has been donated or the university was getting rid of it, so the initial start-up was £4000 and to keep things going, like ordering crime scene suits and gloves, it’ll be roughly £1000 a year.”
Dr Panter explained the different crime scenes: “Right now we have a nursery crime scene, for students to learn about sudden infant deaths or suspicious infant deaths.
“We also have a mother’s room and a bachelor’s room.
“The students can go through drawers, look for evidence, look under furniture.
“We’re setting up our bar room, which is going to be a glassing crime scene. “And another room, which is nowhere near completed, but it will be a post-blast bomb scene.”
The latest investment, the bomb scene, was decided by students, using a poll and is especially important for their learning, following the recent bombing at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
LJMU teaching staff are often retired or active professionals in their field, and Dr Panter expressed why this is so important:
“One thing that makes us unique is that we have staff members who were actually police officers, walking through the crime scene with students, going through each piece of evidence.”
“No book in the world can get you ready for the world of policing.”
Dr Panter has also published research about policing in the US and UK, with a focus on gender bias, diversity and social perceptions of LGBT+ individuals.
As a Detective in Atlanta for 13 years, she experienced the lack of diversity first-hand and for a period of time, she was the only white female in her team.
She said that witnesses and victims were more likely to open up to her because they could relate to her.
Dr Panter told MNL that Serena Kennedy’s appointment as Chief Constable of Merseyside Police is a huge step forward:
“Only a foolish person would say there’s no problems with policing, but we’re making tremendous strides.
“Bias is a deep-rooted issue in the UK and US police forces, in terms of diversity.
“Representation is critical for advancement to policing and Serena Kennedy is an approachable female and has blasted through the glass ceiling in policing.
“There are very few females in high-ranking positions because it is still dominated by the male hetero-normative rhetoric but we are making strides.”
