Drowning Homicide Investigator 2 day (16 hours)
classroom program for all law enforcement personnel including patrol officers, crime scene
technicians, detectives, dive team members, medical examiners, coroners, and prosecutors.
Underwater Investigation Diving 32 hours (5 hours
classroom, 4 hours land drills, 23 hours on water site) for all dive team members. There
are times when the participation of crime scene technicians and detectives would be
helpful.
Class History, Reason for Course, Research
In the 1980’s
and early 90’s, Walt Hendrick worked on several drownings with Dutchess and Ulster
County Sheriff’s Departments that he did not believe were accidental. Further
investigation led Deputy Hendrick to present enough evidence to warrant investigations.
For over 30 years, he has worked on drowning sites and observed that responding law
enforcement personnel often assume that a drowning is accidental. For example, officers enroute to the scene of a child who drowned in a backyard
pool are probably thinking about the grieving parents, and are possibly thinking about
their own children. On the other hand, officers arriving on the scene where a child is
found dead in the kitchen of the same house would most likely start looking for signs of
possible foul play.
The Susan Smith case
is not a single event. Our research over the past ten years of newspaper article searches,
interviews of law enforcement personnel, working on actual incidents, and researching
published studies has shown that drowning is reported to be the eighth most common method
of homicide. If more drownings were investigated as possible foul play, we believe that
that number would be even lower.
Drowning is the
second leading cause of “accidental death” for children in the
The course began as
a one-day program designed to provide law enforcement personnel with a foundation of
information regarding homicidal drowning and special tactics to take on drowning
incidents. The course expanded to two days for two reasons. First, the number one comment
on student evaluation forms was “too much information in too short a time period,
expand the course.” Second, the case histories of parents suffocating and drowning
their children became an increasingly growing concern. Our research showed that more child
drownings are homicidal, than we currently knew. Unfortunately, a large percentage of
child bathtub, pool, and bucket drownings are assumed accidental and are not thoroughly
investigated. The course expansion allowed room for greater instruction on handling these
types of incidents.
The next part of the
course involves homicide victim bodies being dumped in the water postmortem. We researched
postmortem physiology forensics and learned of several ways officers on the scene might be
cued to the possibility that the victim did not die in the water, and that this was not an
accidental drowning fatality. In addition, we wrote up procedures for what divers should
do when they find a body: check and record positioning, bring up the necessary evidence
for the forensics pathologist, and manage the scene to disturb as little evidence as
possible. Since most of our waters are black, photographic recordings are not usually
possible.
Securing an open
water scene is a very important issue that needs to be addressed from several angles. When
a police or fire dive team is called to perform a body recovery, the focus is almost
always totally on the recovery of the body. We have worked with several state police dive
teams who are not even given the opportunity to interview witnesses. Their sole job is
body recovery, and once the body is recovered the job is done. That is not how land based
incidents are treated. For example, consider the following two incidents:
Incident A: Two
intoxicated men call 911 at 0200 hrs stating that their canoe over turned in a lake, they
swam to shore, but their third friend never made it to shore. One of the two witnesses
displays hostile behavior to arriving officers. The victim is recovered by the dive team
and has a four-inch contusion on his forehead.
Incident B: Two
intoxicated men call 911 at 0200 hrs stating that they and a third friend were drinking on
a roof. The third friend stood on the edge of the roof, fell off, and now appears dead on
the sidewalk. One of the two witnesses displays hostile behavior to arriving officers.
Arriving officers notice that the victim has a four-inch contusion on his forehead.
In most counties,
the roof and sidewalk area would be searched for possible evidence that foul play was
involved, such as a device that could have caused the forehead contusion. The scene and
victim may be photographed and a crime scene technician may be called in. Additional
witnesses may be sought for. Background checks may be made on the victim and the two
witnesses for possible motive or similar past behavior.
In most counties,
once the body is recovered in incident A, the divers are pulled from the water and that is
the end of the search. The lake bottom would not be searched for the canoe contents, the
victim would not be photographed and nor would the scene, the witnesses would not be asked
to demonstrate exactly how the canoe over-turned, the swimming ability of the witnesses
and victim would not be checked, and no background checks would be made. What is the
difference between Incidents A and B? Only one thing – how they
would most likely be managed by responding personnel.
The manner in which
a motor vehicle accident is investigated today is different than it was 25 years ago,
because of increased knowledge about MVA incidents that is imparted during law enforcement
training. Today law enforcement personnel are given specific training how to respond to
and investigate a variety of different types of possible homicide incidents. Drowning
incident investigation requires specific knowledge and procedures, yet for the most part
drowning incidents are treated the same way today as they were 25 years ago. This course
is designed to provide law enforcement personnel with the necessary knowledge and skills
to better recognize and investigate water-related fatal or near-fatal incidents.
Lastly, we wanted to
do something to help law enforcement personnel who are subjected to the risk of physical
and liability attack as a result of a perpetrator attempting to escape by way of water. We
wrote up procedures officers can take during such an incident to keep them as safe as
possible, and do whatever they can to ensure the recovery of the perpetrators whether they
are alive or drowned. We also wrote up suggestions for guidelines in standard operating
procedures to protect the department’s liability if a perpetrator drowns, with
procedures to follow should that occur. We want to do everything possible to prevent a
department from being sued for negligent drowning of a perpetrator, and more important, to
prevent the drowning of officers in pursuit.
Course Outline
In brief, the
outline is as follows:
1.
Approach drowning
fatalities and child near drownings with the same degree of suspicion as any other
homicide or possible child abuse incident.
2.
Case history
debriefings
3.
Witness Interviewing
Procedures
4.
Statement Analysis
5.
Investigation
procedures on the scene.
6.
Profiling an open
water investigation – creating court-ready scene documentation
7.
Profiling a tub,
bucket, or pool-based water investigation
8.
Scene and witness
interviewing documentation
9.
Post mortem
physiology forensics- what to look for on a body recovered from the water.
10. Three types of incidents: homicide by drowning,
victim’s body dumped in water after homicide on land, and near-drowning as a result
of child abuse or other foul play.
11. How to retrieve and handle evidence thrown in
the water - how can a detective know if a dive team conducted a thorough search, or if the
team just missed the item?
12. Investigation of vehicular water suicides and
how to determine the difference between a vehicular suicide and attempted cover-up.
13. Where to look for a body in open water –
what procedures to follow
14. How to know if a dive team is doing an
effective search or not.
15. How to protect individual and department
liability when perpetrators attempt to escape police by way of water and the perpetrator
drowns. What procedures can be followed during such an incident to keep the officers safe
physically and liability-wise
16. Written examination and debriefing
Please see the
enclosed workbook for a more detailed itinerary of the program.
Certification Requirements
Students must pass
the written examination with a minimum score of 85, and must fill out the appropriate
sections of the workbook.
Each student
receives:
1.
Homicide by Drowning
Manual (282 pages)
2.
A Homicide by
Drowning Investigator Workbook
3.
Handouts
4.
Wall Certificate of
Completion
5.
Optional: photo ID
certification card - $20 processing fee.
Who Can Attend
·
any law enforcement
personnel including patrol officers, crime scene technicians, detectives and other
personnel
·
prosecutors and
other personnel from the district attorney’s office
·
medical examiners
and coroners
·
fire or dive team
members with permission of host or Lifeguard Systems
Two day Homicide Drowning Investigator Program
The course fee per student is $195. The course host receives two free slots for every ten paid slots
The Program Host
The program host
supplies the classroom, chairs and tables, and coffee (optional). The program host helps recruit students by sending
out information over the teletype and by other means. In exchange, the course host
receives two free student slots for every ten students. The minimum number of students
depends on the course location.
Other arrangements
can also be made, based on a flat fee for up to 50 students. We are flexible.
Facility: classroom
with white board or flip chart, PowerPoint projector, and video capability. We can supply
these AV requirements if necessary.
There is a five -day
version with the first two days for all law enforcement personnel, and the remaining 3
days for dive team personnel only. The dive team personnel must attend the entire course
for certification.
The first two days
are the Drowning Homicide Investigator. The Underwater Investigation course begins in the
classroom the evening of the second day of the DHI course. The third day begins with a
land session dealing with blackwater, tender-directed tethered diving search techniques
and out-of-air, entangled diver contingency procedures. The third day afternoon until the
fifth day afternoon is out on water sites until the last hour, which is devoted to the
written examination.
Custom courses can
be designed to meet you specific needs.
For more information on any of these programs
please contact us
This course is
designed for new or experienced dive team tenders, divers, and officers who will perform
subsurface operations to recover drowning victims and evidence. The course operates in a
rapid deployment mode because 1. some teams have the opportunity to dive for a victim in
the golden rescue 90 minutes, and 2. all teams need to be able to move rapidly in the
situation that one of their own members is in trouble in the water - due to a perpetrator
chase, accidental immersion, or a dive team operation. Rapid deployment capability may
also mean the difference between finding and not finding evidence that could be destroyed
or moved by water.
Please contact us for more information, or to register for these classes:
Lifeguard Systems www.teamlgs.com