Juneau hosting gathering of Alaska law enforcement officers

The Alaska Peace Officers Association annual crime conference is underway in Juneau this week.

Steve Hall, a lieutenant with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, is also president of the Capital City chapter of the APOA. He says 120 officers from around the state are in Juneau through the conference’s end on Friday. Most of the events are at Centennial Hall.

Some of the instructional sessions range from outdoor crime scene photography and emergency communications to computer forensics and cyber-bullying.

One of the classes we peeked in on Tuesday was a training session on Outdoor Crime Scene Photography and Evidence Collection. It covered everything from proper camera operation for getting evidence-quality photographs to using grey paint to highlight snow prints, and using dental stone or sulfur cement for making casts of foot or tire impressions in the snow.

We talked to the instructor, Jim Wolfe, formerly of the state crime lab and now a traveling trainer for the Alaska Police Standards Council. He had just given an assignment to his students. It turned out to be our first interview this year conducted completely in the dark. The ballroom’s lights were completely turned off as Wolfe challenged his students to take pictures of evidence markers scattered throughout the floor. The only light came from the back panel of an officer’s seemingly malfunctioning camera and the display of our field recorder, which Wolfe refers to as our ‘rig.’

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