13 minute read
A Reputation for Justice
The Students, Faculty and Alumni Who Uphold UCM's Criminal Justice Legacy
UCM's Criminal Justice and Criminology (CJC) program has been around for more than 60 years and has consistently ranked among the best in the state and country. One way CJC students have honed their skills and demonstrated their aptitude has been through participation in the American Criminal Justice Association’s Lambda Alpha Epsilon (LAE) competitions.
Since 1966, UCM’s Gamma Epsilon Delta (GED) chapter of LAE has served and prepared hundreds of students for the field of criminal justice. The chapter’s 20-year winning streak at the ACJA-LAE National Conference started in 2003, and Professor Gregg Etter has been leading the team since 2007.
Etter has seen many student members move on to exceptional careers. While these alumni have gone different directions in life — some into law enforcement, others on to law school — all share a common bond that helped prepare them for success.
“CJC is a big tent,” says Etter, who spent nearly 30 years with the Sedgwick County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office before coming to UCM. “Many students want to become cops; others join wanting to become lawyers, correctional officers, juvenile officers, probation officers and social workers. Criminal Justice and Criminology and LAE encompass all of this.”
LAE is open to all students, yet the majority are CJC majors. Academic exams are a huge part of the LAE competition, and the test material is not new information for CJC students. Team members who have taken courses aligning with the subject matter of the exams have a distinct advantage — even over heavy hitters like Cal State, the University of New Haven, West Chester University and the University of Central Florida. Unlike in collegiate sports, there are no divisions in the national LAE competition.
Every member of UCM’s team takes seven academic exams covering the following topics: police management, corrections, criminal law, juvenile justice, homeland and national security, forensic psychology, and ACJALAE knowledge. Team members also have the option to compete in firearms, crime scene investigation (CSI), physical agility and academic research.
What follows is the inside scoop on what it’s like to be a member of this nationally recognized team.
Setting the Scene
Three students walk into a room and spot a body lying on the floor, motionless. They use all the skills they’ve been developing to evaluate the “crime scene,” paying close attention to every detail — how the body is positioned, every object that’s askew, every drop of “blood” or “bruise” on the victim. They search under and between the seat cushion of each chair and shake every book upside down, looking for anything stashed inside. After 15 minutes, they leave the room and have 45 minutes to compile a sketch, evidence list and official report.
UCM students have practiced all year on a professional CSI dummy known affectionately as “Dead Fred.” They set up crime scenes in different areas on campus using Fred to visualize different scenarios. Having this prop — as well as militarygrade moulage kits obtained with grant money — elevates the practice experience for UCM’s team.
“We have as much gory stuff as we need to put on a crime scene,” says Emma Klein, ’24, the 2023–24 LAE-GED president, who earned her CJC degree with a minor in Juvenile Justice. “Then we just bring in evidence as we need it. … We use our imaginations a lot.”
Students who choose to participate in the CSI event compete in groups of three: an evidence collector, a report writer and a sketch artist. Klein’s role has been report writer, and she credits a class taught by CJC Assistant Professor Tony Gasaway for helping her learn how to ask the right questions.
Gasaway, who also teaches tactical communications and ethics at the Central Missouri Police Academy, worked in federal law enforcement for more than three decades as a U.S. Marshals Service chief deputy and spent seven years as a staff instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. He emphasizes writing as an important skill in any career and brings in alumni as guest speakers from a variety of professions.
“One of the most important things we do here as faculty is to not only directly mentor and guide [students] into their careers but to find people in the field, too, that can do that,” Gasaway says.
Kenzie Williams, ’23, ’24, is one such professional who looks forward to coming back to campus to speak or to recruit students after finishing her academy training this summer for the Johnson County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office. As a student, she worked for the Department of Homeland Security with FEMA as a remote national preparedness directorate action officer and served as Recruitment Committee chair for the LAE-GED team.
“It allowed me to share my experiences with the program, guide underclassmen in their transition to college life, and be one of the first people that they know and look up to,” Williams says about serving as recruitment chair. She notes that students can participate in an LAE regional conference as early as the first semester of their freshman year.
Williams double-majored in CJC and Sociology and went on to earn her master’s in CJC through the accelerated dual-degree program that allows students to achieve their bachelor’s and master’s in just five years. Not only does this option advance students’ education, but it also eliminates a gap year for those who would graduate with their bachelor’s degree before turning 21, the minimum age for getting POST certified in a police academy in Missouri.
Etter’s graduate-level Organized Crime course was Williams’ favorite class at UCM. She conducted graduate-level research on human organ trafficking and attended a conference of the National Gang Crime Research Center in Chicago with Etter, who is certified as a Level 3 Professional Gang Expert through the organization. Etter selects his top students to accompany him to the three-day annual conference — and all of them have been LAE members.
Real-world experience like this happens on the road and close to home. In keeping with UCM’s motto of “Education for Service,” every fall LAE team members volunteer to act as security at the Warrensburg community’s annual Burg Fest. This helps unite the new team shortly before competing in the nine-state Region 3 conference. Regionals is a three-day competition that UCM’s team has won 22 consecutive times. The fall event primes them for what nationals will bring in the spring.
Practice Rounds
On the eight-hour bus ride to Louisville, Kentucky, 26 determined students quiz one another and study digital flashcards in hopes of securing that 20th consecutive national championship trophy. After months of practice, it is during this competition that the team becomes whole. Spending a week together, the teammates build on their already high morale and trust.
“It’s not until you go to your first competition that you really understand LAE,” says 2022–23 President Josh Terrell, ’21, ’23, a UCM Finance major who went on to earn his MBA. “That’s what turns us from just a group of people to as close as a family.”
Throughout the academic year, Terrell led a study group for the ACJA-LAE knowledge exam, which every member of the team is required to take at the competition. The group prepared using an extensive official study guide that Terrell turned into a quiz app, creating friendly competition while learning.
Any competitive team knows it takes continual practice to have continued success. When it comes to preparing for the optional portions of the competition, such as firearms, CSI and physical agility, practices look a little different.
Before they can even begin shooting, students take three hours of safety and fundamentals classes to learn how to properly use the weapon. They start off with a basic .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun and progress to a 9mm pistol once they have demonstrated competence. They must advance to the 9mm or .38 Special cartridge and appropriate firearm to compete in the ACJA-LAE regional or national conference. Students also need to shoot 240 out of 480 to qualify for the competition, but 300 is UCM’s standard minimum.
Major Richard Gillespie, ’02, an emeritus of UCM’s Department of Public Safety, volunteers to instruct the university’s firearms team. When he was hired at UCM three decades ago, he vowed to finish the CJC master’s degree he’d taken a hiatus from while serving as chief of the Fulton (Missouri) Police Department. The year after he graduated, he competed in his first national LAE competition, which was also the first time UCM’s team clinched the Sweepstakes Champion title. He has competed in the professional division of the national competition ever since, maintaining his own 20-year winning streak as the “Top Gun.”
The Johnson County (Missouri) Sheriff’s Office shooting ranges provide a place for the LAE-GED team to practice. Sheriff Scott Munsterman, ’97, and his brother, Warrensburg Police Chief Andy Munsterman, ’99, are both CJC alumni. Scott worked with Gillespie at the UCM Department of Public Safety while earning his degree.
The Munsterman brothers and Gillespie are all graduates of the FBI National Academy, which was founded by J. Edgar Hoover in 1935, just two years before LAE was established. At the Quantico Marine Corps Base about an hour from Washington, D.C., working law enforcement professionals go through 10 weeks of intensive physical training, enhance their leadership skills and upgrade their knowledge in some of the same areas as LAE, including forensic science and the terrorist mindset.
Sheriff Munsterman is president-elect of the Kansas/Western Missouri chapter of the FBI National Academy Associates (FBINAA). Fellow CJC alumnus Scott Rhoad, ’87, ’90, who retired in 2021 as director and chief of the UCM Department of Public Safety, currently serves as president of the national FBINAA organization.
In addition to a place to practice, alumni assist the LAE team in offsetting the cost of ammunition. Etter received two donor-funded Opportunity Grants through the UCM Alumni Foundation, and an anonymous alum continues to contribute. The team generally goes through 25 to 30 cases of ammo a year, or about 25,000 to 30,000 rounds.
Competing as part of the firearms team gave CJC alumna Mackenzie (Carreon) Wilburn, ’16, ’17, valuable experience for a career as a crime gun intelligence specialist with the Kansas City Police Department and now for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. LAE sparked Wilburn’s passion for the field of intelligence — specifically for identifying prolific shooters.
“Because of my experiences with LAE, I knew early on in my career what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go,” Wilburn says. “I have been fortunate to find that unique area of criminal justice. … The opportunity I had to bring my individual thoughts and have open discussions really fostered the ability for me to think openly and freely for myself.”
Lifelong Connections
Alumni actively support the CJC program by volunteering time, donating resources and returning for events or to talk with students about their career journeys. Tiffany Sanderson, ’08, is a CJC alumna who works for the Division of Youth Services (DYS) and comes back to campus regularly to speak to classes, take youths in the system on university tours, and attend career fairs.
“I love that I get to collaborate with the CJC department and recruit from UCM now,” she says, noting that the DYS provides internships for residential care providers and sponsors one of UCM’s annual Student Employee of the Year awards.
Erica (McCann) Anderlik, ’20, was part of the CSI competitions, first as LAE-GED Community Service Committee chair, then as chapter president. She got extra practice volunteering for the UCM Police Academy’s role-play scenarios, acting as a suspect, victim or witness to a simulated crime. Anderlik followed in the footsteps of her brother, Ian McCann, ’14.
“It’s like a special bond we share, both being alumni of UCM CJC and both being LAE presidents,” says Anderlik, who is now a paralegal at a personal injury law firm in Liberty, Missouri. “I think the two have shaped me professionally in my career as well. CJC is one of the most well-known departments on campus, and UCM’s department is one of the most well-known in the country.”
Since 2015, CJC alumni and friends have gathered for an annual Alumni Showcase at UCM. Whether they realize it or not, students attending the reunion have probably never seen so many former FBI agents in one room!
The CJC program has created the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI Scholarship in honor of these FBI alumni. CJC Professor Emeritus Dennis Anderson is a former agent who established the Criminal Justice Scholar-Athlete Scholarship while still teaching at the university in 2009. Sydney Sahuri, ’23, was the 2022–23 recipient of this award and a Great Lakes Valley Conference Academic All-Conference honoree and National Tenpin Coaches Association All-Academic bowler for the Jennies. She minored in Juvenile Justice and went on to become a juvenile detention officer with the Madison County Detention Center in Fredericktown, Missouri.
“My goal for the future is to give juveniles the second chance that they deserve,” Sahuri wrote in her thank-you letter for the scholarship. “Kids make mistakes and sometimes bad choices. … I want to help rehabilitate them and give them a chance for a more successful future.”
Another CJC scholarship is named after UCM Professor Emeritus Guillermo E. Davila, who is credited with founding the CJC program, then called the Department of Law Enforcement, in 1962 as the sole faculty member. The university’s LAE chapter is named GED in his honor.
“All members know the letters stand for a very dedicated man of criminal justice, who always cared for his students,” Professor Emeritus Roger Pennel wrote in memoriam in 2009. Two years prior, Davila’s family, students and colleagues gathered gifts in order to endow the Guillermo “Bill” Davila Scholarship for CJC undergraduate students.
Davila started the program before the 1968 federal Law Enforcement Education Program initiated grants to universities for the purpose of professionalizing law enforcement. Soon after, criminal justice programs started to pop up all over the country.
Not only is UCM’s CJC program one of the oldest; it’s also one of the best. And LAE involvement is the icing on the cake. In the collegiate competition and later in the workforce, being part of LAE is a win-win.
