Author: kateh697

Today, as you may be able to predict from the pictures, I spent the day with latent print examiners. Basically, they take prints that the agents retrieve and match them with local fingerprints from the database ( which includes conceal carry permits/ sex offenders/ prior arrests) and try to get a hit. Once the system gets a hit, it is sent to an official examiner to conduct up close comparison and then decide if they will affirm that it is positive, inconclusive or exclusionary. It was nice because they had an official schedule so I got to meet pretty much the whole department throughout the day which definitely kept it entertaining. Although after a few hours I had learned everything about what they do, so I ended up just having fun conversations with each person. One person I talked about my experiences in China and with another we got into Harry Potter.

The coolest part of the system is that if a print is entered and doesn’t get a hit, then it will stay in the system and the system will run reverse checks every day to compare with new arrests. This means that if you commit a crime and get away with it, but then get arrested later for something else then you could get charged with both. The most prominent case of this was a kid who had been breaking into houses since he was 10 and when he was finally arrested for something several years later, they matched him for TWENTY FIVE HITS for other burglaries. Pretty cool eh?

I had a great day with latents and they were definitely my favorite people to talk to since I probably had the most in common with them. The only annoying part was having to explain what I am interested in, where I want to go to school, how I got into this field and basically every other basic small talk question for EVERY SINGLE PERSON. After a certain point I just wanted to call them into a conference room and lay it all out to spare myself the trouble, but I kept my mouth shut since they were taking time out of their day to “educate the minds of youth” as one of the examiners had jokingly said.

I have had an incredible four days at the CCBI and am super grateful for the opportunity to have shadowed here and gain the perspective that I have. I also know how to commit the perfect crime now ;).

On Wednesday I was sent down to the investigations unit and was on call with an agent for crime scenes in Wake County. While the prospect of a super exciting homicide case was awesome, in reality, 80% plus of their cases are property crimes. This includes mainly larceny from auto and residential burglaries. I was all set to go for many adventures, but, alas, we didn’t receive a call until three hours into my shift. Well actually we did, but it was a dialysis patient who had died after refusing treatment for a few weeks and had apparently pooped all over himself. Yikes. In the meantime, the supervisor of the unit decided to show me some “fun” pictures from prior cases. This was a good experience but I think I could’ve gone this week without seeing multiple people having blown their heads off and zooming in on their brains having been smashed to pieces. :/

Finally, at around 12:00 we received a call for an attempted break-in way out by Johnston County. We rolled up in the agent’s cruiser and drove to the scene. After powdering for a few fingerprints and documenting a solid shoe print we drove back to the Detention Center with a quick stop at Bojangles for fuel.

After we got back, she dropped me off with another agent and we headed over to a legitimate break-in in Cary. It was a little weird since the house was pretty close to both of my parent’s houses so I was a tad freaked out. At this scene, they had broken the back door and essentially ransacked almost every room of the house. Since there was so much to do the agent let me powder some areas they likely touched and she would lift a fingerprint if she found one. The best part was the family’s small dog that kept jumping and rolling around me while I was trying to work. I don’t think I have ever been more tempted to pet a dog but I strove to remain professional and maintain respect of this family’s pain.

The most ironic part of the day was that someone from their squad brought in donuts and everyone went craaaaaazy. I guess something about being in uniform makes donuts that much more tempting. I don’t know.

Drugs on drug on drugs. That was my day today. My supervisor dropped me right off with the two ladies of drug chemistry lab for the day and I began my observations. Basically, it is their job to get evidence from the drug vault on DA request cases (meaning cases they plan to prosecute) and check to make sure that the weight and substance is correct. So, they spend their entire day making sure that marijuana is marijuana and cocaine is cocaine etc. Some highlights of my day included watching them weigh about 20 pounds of marijuana and seeing the mass spectrometer in action. I had seen the mass spec in a bunch of crime shows, so I felt like I was in the heart of the action! It was intriguing to learn about the limits for each drug amount that correlate to felonies and trafficking charges. For example, I learned that if you the limit for a trafficking charge is 28g and you have 27g of a cutting agent mixed with 1g of a controlled substance, you would get indicted for the entire mixture, not just the presence of this substance. Basically, sucks for you.

For the last hour of the day I was picked up by the man in charge of toxicology and blood alcohol testing. He was very nice, but clearly not very adept at small talk considering he asked me if I had any questions about every 30 seconds. Overall, while it was not my particular area of interest, it was still fascinating to learn about exactly how drug and DWI convictions happen.

Tomorrow, I am hitting the streets and will be on call for any crimes in Wake County. I am not sure what I will be faced with, but my supervisor said that I may get a homicide if I’m lucky…although don’t know how common it is to commit one’s murderous acts on a Wednesday afternoon. We will see.

Side note: I have made friends with the Wake County Sheriff who works in house and was promised a Chik-Fil-A milkshake from him. Again, we will see.

For my picture, I was very excited because I finagled my way into getting an official badge for a few hours to avoid having an escort during my lunch break. Sadly, very shortly after returning my supervisor whisked it away and I have now felt the hollow feeling after power being brutally stripped from oneself.

Today I spent the day in jail. I never thought I would saying that, but it’s true. I met my supervisor at CCBI in the morning and luckily they were starting interns today, so I got the introductory tour as well as the history of CCBI. At noon, he dropped me off downstairs with the members of Squad C on the Criminal Identification Unit. I spent four hours watching them process and fingerprint/photo criminals, standing about two feet away from the criminals (with no handcuffs on) every time. In the off time, I heard plenty of fascinating “war” stories as my supervisor liked the call them from his time at the agency. He told of one time when he had asked an intern to help roll over a very bloated dead body to get a look at his front. After they had rolled him over, the dead body has expelled this excess gas which sounded a lot like it was taking a breath. The intern jumped up and screamed “OH HELL NO” and proceeded to sprint outside. My supervisor said that it took him five minutes to recover from laughing after that spectacle and eventually he let the intern wait in the car.

The first picture is me alongside the four interns who were beginning their journey at CCBI. We all had to try on bulletproof vests because we are required to wear them for the ride-alongs with the Investigative Unit who report to crime scenes across the county. I will get to do this on Wednesday :)))))))))

The last picture is from the evidence room where they collect confiscated drugs and they had GIANT bags of marijuana in their room. There was so much that the smell was overpowering and our supervisor said that “Wednesday is weed day.” I laughed at this, but he explained that is when the various precincts turn in their collected weed and on Wednesdays, it can be smelled all over the building.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

Day 4 + weekend was a blast! For my research project, I watched Girl, Interrupted and Shutter Island ( which was found on the Delta Studio in flight) during my trip to Atlanta. It was very upsetting because the flight to Atlanta is only 57 minutes, so during that time I only made it through about half of Shutter Island. When the screens turned off, I was right smack in the middle of an incredibly pivotal scene and had to look up the remaining plot on Wikipedia :(. It was a LOT less scary and moving reading a basic plot summary than watching in action, but it was still informative considering it is about a patient at a hospital for the criminally insane. The best part of Friday is that I got a call from Dr. McElreath telling me I was finally paired! I began work for the CCBI (City County Bureau of Investigators) this Monday.

Day Three was chill, but not without intrigue. Today, I decided to conquer the man I nicknamed “The Game Changer,” more commonly known as John Hinckley Jr. His trial where he was cleared by the NGRI plea led to 14 states changing their laws, 4 states abolishing the insanity defense completely and legislation from Congress to top off the massive reform. It is crazy to think how one man sparked so much and yet…so little. These reform laws do nothing to protect the rights of the mentally ill and in many cases, have actively caused extreme consequences. After diving into his tragic life and many other similar cases, it is sometimes hard to keep sympathy at bay. I find it necessary to remind myself of the acts these people committed and center my emotions in order to understand the general public’s concern. Murdering one’s family or attempting to assassinated the president are no minor felonies and I fight to remain objective, while also striving understanding their perspective. It is not an easy balance. Nonetheless, I continue in my journey and will hopefully continue making connections in this study.

Wow. What a day! Most of today was devoted to diving headfirst into all that Chapel Hill had to offer. I spent a combined 5 hours between the law library and main campus library with a quick stop for Chinese food on Franklin Street in between. I have learned more about insanity, criminal defense, and its ties to mental illness in one day than probably anyone ever. Today, the most fascinating connection I made was in regards to the 1996 movie Primal Fear which I screened last night. SPOILER ALERT: Primal Fear is about a young alter boy accused of murder who faked multiple personality disorder to get cleared of a crime through insanity. Today, while researching statistics and reviews, I discovered an eerily similar case in 2000 where a woman killed her husband and claimed to have the same “amnesia” that the main character in Primal Fear had. She got committed to a mental institution and revealed multiple different personalities to the doctors there. Eventually, it leaks from her cellmate that she had been faking these personalities to remove guilt from her crime. These connections were fascinating to observe and I am sure there are many more to come! I can’t wait to see what Day 3 has in store.

 

 

Day 1 for my research adventure was very busy. Since the topic for my research study, the connection between entertainment and law in contributing to the image of mental health, I have a lot of avenues to pursue for my work. After a brief check-in at CA, I headed out to conquer some of these tasks. First, I made a pit stop at Dorothea Dix Hospital. While it is no longer functioning, I got to see the cemetery and some of the history. Then, I hit up the fabulous James B. Hunt Library where I discovered a few books that will be essential to my research. Here I spent a few hours diving into popular NGRI cases, reading from my books, and starting to make connections. Following a brief lunch, I headed over to Holly Hill Hospital in Raleigh for a brief tour with an administrator in order to get insight into private mental health institutions. After this, I headed home for some relevant entertainment watching. I recorded observations on an episode of “American Horror Story: Asylum” and the 1996 film “Primal Fear.” Both of these provide an intriguing look at recent opinions about mental health and the asylums.