9th Annual CSI Challenge – Mount St. Mary’s University – April 6, 2013
University of Maryland College Park CCJS students participated for the first time in Mount Saint Mary’s University’s Ninth Annual Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Challenge, on Saturday, April 6th, 2013, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Faculty Mentor, Tom Mauriello and his student team of Criminal Justice majors, Tim Fromm, Mark Lombard, and Andrea Williams placed 3rd out of the 35 teams competing this past weekend. The CSI Challenge is a competition where students from local area universities and Canada demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities in crime scene investigation and evidence collection. Students assume the roles of both a crime scene investigator and evidence technician and are presented with their crime scenario and given a limited amount of time to process a mock crime scene, collect pertinent evidence, and complete all necessary reports. Student teams were required to perform crime scene tasks to include surveying and securing the scene, interviewing witnesses, crime scene sketching, crime scene photography, and demonstrate proper evidence collection procedures. The objective of the program is for students to use team work and critical thinking skills to complete their task effectively and efficiently. Law enforcement and forensics professionals and educators judged the students throughout the exercise and those teams with the three highest scores were recognized at the conclusion of the event. Congratulations to the University of Maryland CCJS Team for being one of those recognized. All three students had successfully completed CCJS 320, Introduction to Criminalistics, and demonstrated the value of the course by successfully competing with so many of their peers.
