Press Release

May 14, 2007

On Friday, May 10, 2007 , the Pace High School law class students attended a presentation by the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Division. This unique presentation exposed them to a mock crime scene where they were able to learn first hand how to search for, identify, and process evidence that might lead to the solving of the crime. The request for the presentation was made by Ms. Kay Dawson, the law class instructor, who wanted her students to learn more about the job of a crime scene tech. Crime scene technician Nadia Atamanyuk went to Pace High School and showed the students how evidence is collected, how a crime scene is processed and how DNA and latent prints can be paramount in solving a crime. To do this Atamanyuk, Crime Prevention Specialist Cindy Sarver, and Wesley Barr of the SRSO put together a mock crime scene in the park located directly behind the school. Ms. Dawson's students were each given a scenario and asked to go to the crime scene, process it, and subsequently determine who committed the crime given their findings in the scenario. The students were divided up into three teams and each team marked their evidence, took photos of the scene and determined how the crime was committed and who might have committed it. Afterwards, the students returned to the classroom and reported their data and their reasons behind their findings. Both the students and staff viewed this effort as a tremendous learning experience and are hoping for an opportunity to do something like this again in the future. Sheriff Wendell Hall has continually provided the necessary staff for these types of presentations in order to educate the students on the positive aspects of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Photos of the training session are attached to this release.

Marc Ward

SRSO Assistant PIO

Cell #232-2596

Office #983-1234