CSI NC

It is high time that I knocked up a bit of a spiel on what I have actually been up to in the past 3 weeks. To cut a really really long story short I have been dropping into random county, city police, state and sheriff crime scene offices for some crime scene duties. I realise that it is hard to believe that there are so many agencies but let me break it down for you:

1 - there are 100 separate counties in North Carolina
2 - each county usually has about 3 - 5 different law enforcement agencies
3 - the simple maths is that there are around 500 different agencies in the state - that's 500 different uniforms, cars, policies and procedures

I have had the sheer pleasure to hang out with certain people and agencies.

Most recently I have been able to hang with my good mates at the CCBI - City County Bureau of Investigation. They are a team of great crime scene folk from Raleigh who cover all crimes within their county. They are a busy bunch of hard working crime sceners, and I have hung out with my mate Shayne. She was kind enough to pick me up at about 5.30am each day we worked (12 hour shifts) and we got to go to heaps of great jobs - including deaths, house breaks, car crime and more.

A little insight into the sheer volume of crime that they attend to can be appreciated by the following. These are the crime stats for 7 days in Raleigh:

Murders - 2
Rapes - 3
Robberies - 17
Assaults - 18
Burglaries - 61
Vehicle thefts - 20
Arsons - 4
Larcenies - 181

They are obviously busy people!!

This is me and my mate Shayne

The SBI is the agency that is called upon when the job might be a little beyond the capabilites of the attending smaller crime scene units. SBI stands for State Bureau of Investigation. Unfortunately there were no major hiccups for the fine people of North Carolina when I was with the SBI but we ran through some great programs and I was lucky enough to be invited along to their Blood Splatter course for a day. We ran through some great mock crime scenes - including a police shooting and shared some great ideas and methods.

My vocational advocate SBI Special Agent Whyatt PETTINGAL has been a cool guy and taken me around a whole heaps of different locations, and given me the opportunity to meet and speak with many people in high places. I was particularly impressed with the Apex Police Chief's choice of patrol cars for his troops. I knew no-one would believe me if I told them, so I have photographic proof of the fleet the Apex police cruise around in!!