Shadowing a Forensic Unit Supervisor Harley Middleton 11314

Shadowing a Forensic Unit Supervisor Harley Middleton 11/3/14 Career Skills Bell 2 Ms. Gulliford

Introduction Virginia Beach Police Department Person interviewed: Dan Clanton of the VBPD Forensic Unit

Dan Clanton Lifestyle: Not at home very often, doesn’t get to see his family much. Enjoys his job very much, even though he works 50 -60 hours a week Daily tasks: Supervise about 24 people, corresponding with other agents, drafting lab evidence, review case work, and testify cases with evidence in court.

Job environment and Rewards/Satisfactions Clean, brand new, spacious building (the old SPCA property) Salary: $32, 000 - $80, 000+ Fringe Benefits: Salary, health benefits, retirement, legal benefits, employee/assistant, The Wellness Program. There have been no significant raises since 2000.

Things I did Took a tour throughout the building Went into the Fingerprint Analysis room, the “Fun Room”, the chemical room, the evidence room, the Bomb Squad equipment room, the garage, Dan Clanton’s office, Ben Gonse’s office. Also the Canine building where I met Chewy and Dax, the helicopter runway where I watched a helicopter take off and saw all the different undercover vans and trucks that are used.

Traits and physical attributes needed Patience Communication Organization Coping Skills Sympathy for the victim and/or their family No physical attributes are really needed.

Insights and Opinions from Dan Advice for students interested in this career: Keep your criminal record clear 0 drug use Get into a good college A degree in science Record in Community Service Definitely do an internship

Observations/ Reflections Very big, spacious building Tiring job Need to be willing to put in the work and focus on what you need to do Fun job/ putting together the puzzle You have to be ready for anything Might have some very unusual cases

Job Outlook Technology: DNA tech. changing, mobile devices, computers, ways of collecting evidence In the future, there might be physical attributes and strengths that are needed.

Education/Certification required A min. of 5 -7 years in forensics and must obtain a driver’s license. An internship isn’t mandatory but is strongly advised.

Best/Worst things about this career Best: Solving the case, catching the bad guy, putting together the puzzle, collecting evidence, and working with all the strange cases Worst: Time away from family, late nights, 3 am wake up calls

Things I learned Technology is very hard to keep up with In the canine building, once a dog is retired, the trainers normally keep them. They use actual human blood in the “Fun Room”

What Surprised Me You have to study about 100 different fingerprints and decide which one belongs to the criminal. It takes a long time for this. There are more people in the Hit and Run office than there are in the Bomb Squad office. They don’t have/need mechanics working in the garage when they are trying to collect evidence from vehicles

Summary Very Informative More interesting than I imagined Lot more effort needs to be put into this job than I thought

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