Homicide Investigation

Certification

This course is certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.

Description

This training is approved for 32 hours (maximum credit) toward the 32-hr. recertification requirement for Lead Homicide Investigators.

The course will be conducted by the Southern Police Institute (SPI) at the University of Louisville. SPI has provided law enforcement officers worldwide with quality homicide investigative training since 1955. In many quarters, the SPI two-week Homicide Investigation course is considered the gold standard for death investigation training.

The course is an intensive eighty-hour program delivered over 10 days, providing students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to conduct competent and complete homicide/death investigations. Carefully selected case studies are used throughout the program to explore every aspect of homicide/death investigations, including autoerotic fatalities and suicides. An expert in a specific field of specialization leads each program segment. Court certified, these experts will provide students with valuable exposure to years of field experience and a variety of investigative techniques. Each student is granted the opportunity to individually interact with the instructors and review cases, including their own cold cases and active investigations.

Cases will be examined through discussion, questions, and answers as well as an evaluation of evidence by participants and instructors. The learning environment and assignments, including practical and scenario-based exercises, is highly interactive with frequent group discussions in order to draw on the experience and expertise of the participants themselves as well as from the experience the instructors bring to the classroom. At the completion of the program participants will have the ability to differentiate between accidental, suicidal, and homicidal deaths.

Topics

• Scene Response and Protocol
• Scene Analysis with Student Case Study
• Law Enforcement Tools and Technology
• Case Management and Small Group Case Work
• Suicide Investigation
• Court Preparation and Testimony
• Criminal Profiling Techniques for Homicide Detectives
• Application of Methodology Utilized When Analyzing Violent Crimes
• Criminal Investigative Analysis Program
• Equivocal Death Evaluations
• Cold Case Analysis — Forensic Linguistic Examination
• Cold Case Analysis — Missing Persons Case
• Statement Analysis
• Crime Scene Reconstruction — Sexual Homicide
• Legal Issues in Homicide Investigation
• Prosecution of Homicide Cases
• Forensic Evidence and Crime Scene Collection
• Trace and Biological Evidence
• Identification of Blood — Small Group Practical
• DNA Evidence
• Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: Recognition and Classification
• Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: Mechanics in the Crime Scene & Documentation
• Clandestine Graves
• Introduction to Forensic Pathology
• Blunt and Sharp Force Injuries
• Deaths Associated With Fire and Electricity
• Deaths From Asphyxia
• Injury and Death Associated With Gunshot Wounds
• Death in Childhood: SIDS/SUID/SUDI
• Common Causes of Accidental and Homicidal Death in Children

Instructor