What lies beneath?
Are thermal cameras the next step in law enforcement documentation of assault injuries?
I believe it would be fair to say that assault investigations are a daily occurrence for most law enforcement agencies. Techniques of observation are paramount to all levels of law enforcement investigation involving assaults which our profession is often called to investigate. Knowing what to look for and how to look for physical evidence helps to verify assault claims and has a major impact on how we proceed with cases. How can law enforcement document injuries that are internal or even advise victims they need to seek medical treatment if our abilities are limited? There may be a way in the near future where we could see the
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Contrary to popular belief, non-fatal and even fatal strangulations leave very few, if any, signs of external injury (Strack et al., 2014, p.88). Frequently, the only indicators of strangulation are internal and therefore harder to detect without proper training. By contrast, choking is an internal blocking of the airway by a foreign object, but this is often used incorrectly to describe strangulation. Subtle signs and symptoms of strangulation are: headache, sore neck, sore throat, trouble swallowing, raspy/hoarse voice, breathing difficulty, vomiting, petechial hemorrhage, loss of bowel control and loss of memory (Strack et al., 2014, p87). A sore throat and/ or voice changes are present in 50-70% of evaluated cases (Foley, 2015, p89). Repeated acts of non-fatal strangulation lead to long term behavioral, neurological and psychological disorders (Strack et al., 2014, p87). Victims of strangulation can die hours or weeks later from a strangulation event if immediate medical intervention is not sought. A published study through the Journal of Emergency Medicine ( October 2008, 35(3), pages 329-335) showed that if a woman survives strangulation even once she is 700% more likely to be strangled again and 800% more likely to be killed later. The lack of physical evidence in strangulations has caused many to treat it as a minor incident, when in fact, they are some of the most lethal cases we will deal with (Gwinn, Strack, Mack., 2014,
Police Body Cameras Due to devastating events that have occurred between policemen and civilians, law enforcements find it liable for police officers to be fitted with body cameras. In doing so it is thought to bring an increase in trust in the community, reduce brutality and crime, as well as elucidate good cops still around. I feel body cameras will bring more awareness to police departments when it comes to the honesty in their staff’s actions when they are unsupervised. They can be used as hard evidence in courtrooms, to help make the correct judgment on the situation in question.
DSS received a report of physical abuse, physical neglect and substantial risk of physical abuse on March 3, 2017 alleging there is chaos in the home. After returning with his brothers from their cousin’s house, the boys had to go to bed. The reporter stated that Xzavia banged on his mother’s bedroom door on three separate occasions wanting something to eat. The first time he was told to go back to bed and a popping noise was heard. The second time Ms. Kimberly Dawkins grabbed Xzavia by the head, shook him little and told him to go back to bed. The third time Ms. Dawkins grabbed Xzavia, threw him on the bed, got a gun, held him down and pointed it at him. Reporter states there was no clip in the gun. Ms. Dawkins was reported being upset and it was reported that she left the home for twenty minutes but came back. It was reported that while Ms. Dawkins was gone, Xzavia was very upset and he was crying and Tyzhaun stared punching holes in the wall. It was reported that Xzavia says he wanted to die and that Atmorris went and got a knife, stated to Xzavia, “You want to die?”, here’s the knife and the two older brothers, Tyzhaun and Atmorris left the house and Xzavia chased them. It was reported that Xzavia was outside crying and he spent the night with the neighbor.
The use of the rigid cervical collar is a practice that was established with a miniscule amount of information backing the overall efficacy of its use. Collars has been is use and relatively unchanged for over 30 years. Overall use of cervical collars is a widely used practice in around 60 countries, and holds the same importance as airway, breathing, and circulation (Sundstrøm, Asbjørnsen, Habiba, Sunde, Wester, 2014). Cervical collars sole purpose was to prevent any further damage from occurring after initial injury and during extrication. Trauma and potential trauma scenes can present a cornucopia of unique and unseen scenarios. In most situation, although there is protocol set in place to first place an individual to hold manual, inline cervical spine, placing a rigid cervical
Department of Justice has investigated the police forces of several large cities for systemic police misconduct, including, harassment of racial minorities, false arrests, and excessive use force. (“Police Brutality”); however this can often be difficult when the media come into play can often misinterpret facts about a case. This is media’s way of using their power to add on even more pressure on U.S. Department of Justice to the pressure that they are already under to make sure to victims get justice. The first thing the U.S. Department of Justice have to do is investigate and a majority of complaints against of police are thrown out upon further investigation. For examples A 2006 Justice Department report, stated that only 2,000 of the more than 26,000 citizen complaint of police brutality filed nationally in 2002−less than 8 percent−were found credible("Police Brutality"). The U.S. Department of Justice also have find evidence which includes testimony, documentary evidence, and physical evidence. The media can often twist people in to saying thing that are not true, and twist videos into only show what they want people to believe. In recent new, In South Carolina a female student was slammed on the ground and throw a cross the classroom. The media didn’t display the entire video where the teacher tells the girl to leave, then the assistant principal, and the officer tells her to leave. When she doesn’t leave he tries to grab
Sexual assault is the act of sexual intercourse without consent of the other person according to New South Wales Consolidation Act of 1900 (Austlii 2011) and is also described by the Australian Standard Offence Classification as ‘non-consensual’ acts or intents of sexual nature (ASOC 2008, p. 31) has become one of the most predominate crimes creating social harm in Australia. Social harm is defined as the negative influence through consequences impacting from the individual to the living conditions of the surrounding public (Cain & Howe 2008, p. 26). Sexual assault poses a social threat to all aspects of community, spreading insecurity in the 9000 victims across Australia and 1900 victims in NSW alone as indicated in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Crime Victimisation Report (ABS 2011, p. 40). This is supported by the victimization rate of all sexually assaulted victims between ages 10 to 14 being 4 times greater than all the other age groups (ABS 2010). Another major issue within the boundaries of sexual assault is that it holds one of the lowest prosecution rates with only 1 in 10 incidents able to prosecute the offender as guilty (Fitzgerald 2006, Pg. 1). The abundance of statistics and reports conducted all imply that sexual assault is still a predominate issue of crime within Australia.
“A body-worn camera in public policing is a miniature audio and video recording device which allows recording of officers’ duties and citizen interaction,” notes Thomas K. Bud. Police body-cameras are significantly growing in popularity across Canada. While legislation has not confirmed definite rules regarding the use of body-cameras, local police departments have begun their implementation. Canadian police services involved in these projects include Toronto, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, and Amherstburg Police Services. The results of these projects have revealed mixed thoughts regarding body-camera effectiveness. Is it a good idea for police to wear body-cameras? While the cost of police wearing body cameras seems prohibitive, police wearing
The Hunting Ground, directed by Kirby Dick was a great eye opener and was amazing to watch to get a realistic view of what goes on throughout college campuses. As the film continued on following the lives of several undergrad students who had been sexually assaulted it got me to think, why? Even after watching it twice I still was in shock by the endless amounts of victim blaming these prestige’s schools were putting on their students.
Physical restraint, according to Health Care Financing Administration, can be defined as any handling, physical and mechanical methods applied to a patient with the aim of denying him or her the freedom of movement or access to his or her own body (Di Lorenzo et al., 2011). It may involve use of belts or ties that restrain movement of an individual such as seclusion. Seclusion refers to isolation from others, often done in a room that’s I avoid of any furniture and has a small observable window as the only connection to the outside world (Chandler, 2012). The use of physical restraint in handling patients has been on debate for several years now. In most countries such Italy, it
In 2014, the New York Police Department announced that it would begin a pilot program to have its officers wear body cameras while on duty (Bruinius). However, the issue of privacy invasion and confidentiality of officers and the public has arisen. Though Body cameras on police officers could help in some scenarios such as random crimes, or police to citizen behavior, they also threaten privacy. Body mounted cameras are an invasion of privacy not only for the officers but also for the citizens involved. According to Freund Kelly, “Police officers often go inside businesses, private property and private homes as part of their duties. When police officers have a warrant, or believe there is an emergency,
Believe it or not, wounds from a victim are also evidence. The wound can allow the investigators to match up any marks that could have been made from the weapon and therefore allows them to determine at what angle, distance, and how fast the weapon was used.
Me reading this and knowing that this is really happening in the world is really crazy to me innocent people really, should we have your jobs.
For my research project I decided to do it on domestic violence. Domestic violence can be described as a violent or aggressive behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. Domestic violence can happen on the street, in one’s home or even in a public place. The people who are exposed to domestic violence can be children, men and women; women are usually the ones that suffer from domestic violence from their loved ones. There are plenty of subtopics to choose from that involves domestic violence, the sub topic that interested me the most was Police Officers that are involved in Domestic Violence acts. I chose to do my research topic on domestic violence because I want to learn more about the topic and who does it all effect and if someone is exposed to domestic violence could it harm them is some sort of way. Domestic violence among police officers happen more than usual and happens more compared to domestic violence in non-police officer families. The reason for this is because I believe it is all of the stress that police officers have on the job and what they have to deal with involving murders, rapist and all of the psychological problems they deal with on a daily basis on the job which causes the offices to drink and do drugs to get the mental pictures out of their heads of deaths and that can cause police officers to commit these domestic violence acts. When police officers are involved in domestic violence acts, what happens to them and can they get away with the assault compared to non-police officers just because they are a police officer?
One of the most important human rights issues facing Canadians today is the high rate of sexual assault against women. Sexual assault against women acts as a barrier to gender equality and stands in the way of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sexual assault can be any unwanted physical contact or menacing of a sexual nature or in a sexual situation, done intentionally or recklessly without permission. It includes attempts and threats of unwanted sexual contact. Sexual assault can cover actions range from kissing or sexual touching to sexual act. Sexual assault is a criminal offense even though the victim does not have any physical injuries. Sexual assault in Canada is gendered and socially-patterned. Women are more likely to experience
The serious crime I chose to rank the big cities with is aggravated assault. Aggravated assault can be defined as an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury (Uniform Crime Report, 2014). This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce bodily harm that results in death. According to the FBI’s uniform crime reporting statistics, there were approximately 724, 149 aggravated assaults in the United States, with approximately 229.1 per 100,00 inhabitants (Uniform Crime Report, 2014). Of the aggravated assault offenses reported to law enforcement officials, it was determined that 27 percent were committed with a personal weapon, firearms were used in 21.6 percent of the assaults and knives or other cutting instruments were used in 19.1 percent of the assaults (Uniform Crime Report, 2014).
Forensic investigations require skills of specially trained scientists, police, engineers, doctors and others. “These investigators observe all types of evidence, from weapons to bloodstains and from computers to bugs” (Erzinclioglu 5). The greater the evidence against a person, the greater the chance of conviction.