FOLEY, Ala. - When law enforcement officers and crime investigators head to a crime scene, one way to work the scene is to view it as the ending to a story and figure out the details of a book.
“That is one way to work it as long as you let the story unfold based on the evidence and not assumptions,” Baldwin County Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack said.
The clues and information officers can acquire from a crime scene are often immeasurable in value and can tell a lot about the details of the story and how the ending happened.
Participants in the Citizens Police Academy, hosted by the Foley Police Department, learned all this and much more Thursday from Mack, who presented a crash course on crime scene investigations and the importance it can have on an investigation and case.
The scene of a crime is where investigators begin a case, Mack said, and the information collected can “define the investigation.
“A crime scene, very simply, can explain circumstances.”
Crime scenes also can eliminate suspects and determine the next step in an investigation, Mack said.
“The number one mistake law enforcements make is they work crime scenes too quick,” he said. “Once it’s cleaned up, it’s gone. Once you’ve missed it, you’ve missed it.”
Mack said there are two levels of crime scene work: collection and analysis. The collection phase is important to spend as much time on the scene as possible, because Mack said investigators will be asked more times about what they did not do, did not collect, did not ask or did not process from the scene.
“Juries believe you have all the time and recourses available,” he said.
Mack gave the Citizens Police Academy class the same crime scene investigation presentation he gives actual investigators in training.
Mack also gave a presentation on the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and the pecking order and relationship the office has with the state, local municipalities and the county commission.
The sheriff’s office enforces Alabama state law, Mack said.
“I don’t enforce the laws of Foley or Magnolia Springs or Daphne. Those are ordinances.”
The office also does not work for the Baldwin County Commission.
“The county commission and I have a ‘monetary’ relationship,” Mack said, noting the commission funds the sheriff’s office.
The office executes warrants, operates the Baldwin County Corrections Center and provides security for polling states, transportation of ballots and maintains ballots after elections.
The sheriff’s office also provides two camps and the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Boys Ranch to county children and teenagers. The Explorer Program is for 16-21 year olds, and Camp Shining Star is for 8-12 year olds.
“I don’t think a child’s and law enforcement officer’s first interaction should be negative,” Mack said.
