On March 7, 2015 the School of Public Safety welcomed forty-five students from across Ontario to an intercollegiate Crime Scene Investigation Challenge. Students and faculty from six colleges (Fleming, Georgian, Humber, Loyalist, Sheridan and St. Lawrence) competed to solve a crime scene challenge and Sheridan was proudly represented by two teams from the School of Public Safety (Police Foundations and Investigation: Public & Private). This challenge involved students securing and evaluating evidence from a mock crime scene to support a forensic investigation. The event offered a valuable professional development opportunity for students. They practiced leadership and teamwork skills under the guidance of faculty from across Ontario and two serving officers from Peel Regional Police (Acting. Sgt. Rob Hofstetter and Constable Mark Fisher) who took time out of their duties to provide students with advice and guidance about crime scene management. Constable Ed Dela Cruz and Cadet Diego Alfaro of Peel Regional Police’s Recruiting Bureau also talked to students during a networking lunch about careers in policing.
This year’s trophy was won by Georgian College and Fleming College who tied for first and a team from Loyalist College who were the runners up. The organizers would like to thank Peel Regional Police and their officers for supporting this event along with visiting faculty members Catherine Wareham, Perry Prescott, Kevin Rowcliffe, Amy Bjerknes, Elizabeth Sheridan, and Ralph Ashford for their participation as judges and evaluators in this event. We would also like to thank the two event organizers, Greg Chellew and Gary Galbraith, for their hard work in setting up the challenge. A special thank you for the kind assistance of the student volunteers from Police Foundations (Victoria Trinh and Josipa Kovacic) who helped with the crime scene preparation. The organizers are also grateful to the two volunteer photographers, Chuck Lawrence, Coordinator of Police Foundations, and Mehreen Shahid of the Sheridan Sun, who kindly provided some great photos of the event.
Participation in the challenge was set up as a Co-Curricular Record (CCR) activity. The Co-Curricular Record helps students to show their professional and personal development in Sheridan-related activities beyond the classroom. For more details on the CCR initiative, contact Christina Wiggins and Diana Herholz at mysheridanCCR@sheridancollege.ca or access https://mysheridanccr.sheridancollege.ca.
