Blog 23: Exit Interview Prep

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

• My essential question is "What is the most useful skill to a crime scene investigator in an investigation?" My three answers are Fingerprinting, Photography, and Technology. My best answer is photography simply because it can be applied to my other two answers and then some. Photography is not just used to photograph the crime scene, but to capture fingerprints, as well as play an integral part in the understanding of technology. This is because you have to understand how to use the actual device, that you are using to capture these photos. Simply put there is no better way to show others a crime scene than to provide a visual documentation. Words can only do so much, but if you can show someone something, they have a better understanding of it.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• I came to this answer after my second interview, as well as through my mentorship experience. In my second interview, I interviewed my mentor, and she really explained well  how photography was such an essential skill to have as a crime scene investigator. Even urging me to pursue such a course. Through my mentor ship as well I came to this answer. Looking at case files, I would read reports and then look at the photos and try and understand what happened. It wasn't until I looked at the photos did I understand what the reports were saying. During my mock crime scene as well, I gained a better appreciation for the technical side to properly documenting a crime scene with photography.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• I didn't really face any problems during my searching process. During my second interview as I said my mentor is basically the foundation for all my answers. I then took the liberty, through my mentorship and researching process to deem if these answers were indeed valid.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• One of my most significant sources of course is my mentor Sheri Orellana. She is a experienced crime scene investigator, and did a really good job of helping me understand the field. My second biggest source is my mentors co-worker CSI Tony Nguyen. He is also an experienced crime scene investigator with a degree in photography. The biggest textual source that was of most help to me was  A Practitioner's Guide to Forensic Photography. (see works cited below)

"Crime Scene Photography." A Practitioner's Guide Forensic Photography (2014): 113-62. Crime Scene Investigator, 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.