“Bag it and tag it,” said Irvine police Crime Scene Investigator Laura Wrightman, projecting her voice over the din of a roomful of chattering high schoolers.

Teens, hands encased in black latex gloves, gingerly picked up snack wrappers and cigarette butts and dropped the evidence into brown paper bags, sealing them with shiny red tape.

The students were participants in Irvine’s inaugural Teen Community Police Academy, a program intended to give students an inside look at local law enforcement.

“It’s not just about catching the bad guy,” Wrightman said Aug. 11, the second day of the week-long program. “My job is nothing like you see on TV.”

As she gave the 30-odd participants a tour of the department’s CSI laboratory, other officers were secretly setting up a “crime scene” in the room that serves as the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

The surprise was to meant to give students a chance to use what they had learned to experience first-hand the procedures officers go through to solve a crime – and to prove it in court.

An assault had occurred, and a cell phone had been stolen, the teens were told.

The challenge? Track down the perpetrator. Before tracking a suspect, however, the teens were set to work gathering evidence.

Some sketched the scene, which included overturned furniture, as if a scuffle had occurred, and trash strewn about, as if the attacker had spent time snacking and smoking before the assault. Others used dusting brushes to capture fingerprints.

A baseball bat, snack wrappers and a shoe print were among the items left behind and catalogued. Next to each piece of evidence, Max Fox, 17, deposited a numbered placard.

The students watched surveillance footage and based on a description of the suspect, were asked to pick him out of a photo lineup.

Penn State student Matthew Carrigan, 22, from Rancho Santa Margarita, is will soon go into his senior year, but in the meantime he’s playacting as a dangerous robber. He’s interning with the department this summer.

Woodbridge High School students Anahita Jafary, 14, and Maegan Melchior, 15, shot their hands in the air when the fourth of six photos were displayed.

After the group had voted on which of the men pictured was the suspect, Carrigan’s number – four – was announced. Jafary and Melchior high-fived.

They recognized him because, in preparation for the staged crime the teens would be asked to solve, he walked by the students as they walked through the police station.

“I thought he was suspicious, but I didn’t want to say anything,” said 15-year-old Mateo Sanchez, who said he plans to apply for the department’s volunteer Explorers training program.

During the week-long course, students also learned about traffic enforcement, emergency management, tactics, training and use of force.

The academy will be held again in the summer of 2016.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/students-678201-teens-crime.html