Response and understanding a death scenen

Program was great. Easy instructions and simple to navigate. I like that I was able to stop and start the program for breaks and not have to start from scratch.

Notes on Class

I know this is a brief overview and there are likely some things that can't be controlled or can't really be covered in a short time, but here are notes or thoughts on class material and presentations: When reviewing manner of death, while the main categories (N, A, S, H, U) are essential, most states commonly use an additional manner termed as "medical misadventure or therapeutic complication/s" to describe a death resulting from known complications of medical procedures. Depending on discretion or policies of offices (in exception to Felony Murder assignments), manners are assigned by MEs with intention of purely describing the method or mode or death (without assignment of blame). To many MEs or coroners, police are responsible in assigning charges to a suspect while MEs/Cs will explain how someone died to more appropriately stay w/in the scope of their responsibilities. MEs assigning an OD as a homicide is going to be viewed as stepping on the toes of police authority in some jurisdictions. I would recommend avoiding phrases such as "going with your gut" and encourage fact-based observations or perhaps use statements such as "based on my training." While the instructor likely understands the context of objective notes, an attorney will eat up an officer or professional that says things like ‘I went with my gut’ or ‘I had a feeling’; Attorneys love this because they know they can use it against an officer in court to rule his/her procedures as inadmissible. The argument is that they were based on prejudice rather than sound proceedings. The slides were difficult to see and read online. At times, they were not even utilized or just were passed over without explanation. It would be beneficial to alter presentations to fit each course and perhaps, for online students, instead just show the slides and have audio of the lecture instead of classroom video to help with the quality. The V pattern noted on hanging decedents is not only great in showing a pattern, but also can indicate the point of suspension, which is great if the ligature is removed prematurely by family or LE. Chemical suicides are good to include, but it seemed limited. Hydrogen Sulfide use in suicides is less common (albeit interesting), but perhaps giving more detail about CO ones would be more relevant for the audience. CO may also be created thru the mix of Formic and Sulphuric Acids rather than more traditional ways of car exhausts or grills i.e., food for thought. Entomology seemed pointless to have in this course, the explanation was vague and a bit contradictory. Initially stated that activity was only temperature dependent, then later was stated that humidity and many other factors matter. Maybe have an entomologist cover this, or speak to an entomologist to obtain the basics they wish an officer or investigator knew-- OR just get rid of it completely. When discussing documentation of injuries, generalization was encouraged. I think the remainder of the presentation should encourage that as well. Just like a stab wound could later be determined as a GSW, defense-like wounds may not be caused from another person at all. Postmortem "injuries" may just be postmortem factors (a scar that splits open looking like a stab wound i.e.) so avoiding suggestive terms is also key. Powder burns should never be used to describe GSWs, more ideal to say "stippling" to avoid misinterpretation of wounds. Investigators at medicolegal agencies, or police officers are not really experts in court so interpretation is commonly left up to a doctor or highly trained expert. Generic terminology and descriptions are safest for reports unless the expertise can be backed up thru education & training. I would either tailor presentations to fit the background of the presenter or recommend utilizing various instructors (meaning ones that perhaps have experience in other parts of the country or world). OR, perhaps learning more about other jurisdictions in the country by speaking to them about their policies or investigations would be beneficial. Taking the clothes off of a body at a scene is completely forbidden in many authorities (though yes investigators are allowed to move clothes for proper examination). Also, many jurisdictions will state that a weapon should never be brought to a morgue or ME's office for both safety and evidentiary concerns. Some state statutes actually specifically address such issues so good to make a mental note of such. While all forensic professionals usually say things we shouldn't as we have to cope with the terrible things we see, we also know that there is a time and place. When it comes to E-learning that is available essentially anywhere in the world, colorful phrasing should be avoided. I would recommend not repeatedly talking about EMS and their "hauling of dead babies." And poking fun at binary people in your discussion on infant death, probably not a great idea when you have no idea what cultures are present in your audience. Hopefully things are not seen in too negative of a light! So I will add that the easy availability of the class is appreciated. The navigation of it is user-friendly. The sound quality was fair and most of the time, you could hear the speaker clearly. Some typos and grammatical issues here and there (hanged not hung, misspellings on the slides) but a little tweaking will easily fix those errors. DITA is a good source for easily accessible, continuing education despite what group you may need them for.

VERY INFORMATIVE

I am a student who is looking forward to being a medical examiner after I finish studies so having these courses are great especially because they were free.99!!!!

Trooper

This course had a lot of information about the small details when it comes to investigations. Some in which aren't thought of during the investigations.

Very informative and well done!

Darren is always well spoken and gets his information across in a multitude of ways so as to make sure everyone he is teaching understands the important information he’s giving. I felt as though I was there attending the class in person with everyone else and learned a lot! Thank you so much for making this training free and available for everyone, it sealed the deal for me to attend the entire MLDI training course!

A Great Start

This is a great start for anyone involved in death investigation. I highly recommend it. I can't wait to take the MDI course and exam this summer. Thank you for offering this class during the country's shut down.

Death Investigations

Unprofessional Instructor

I have very little to say regarding this course. The information was valuable and appropriate however the instructor was tactless and used what I felt were racist and sexist comments. Any instructor or prefaces "let me be PC" then uses the phrase "too many chiefs and not enough Indians" should not be an instructor. This among many other reasons made this entire training unpalatable and in all honesty hard to finish.

Good Course

great information

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Very informative lecture.

Wonderful Course

Great topics and greatly covered with the time given. Each topic could be given so much more class time but the amount of information conveyed in the time allotted was perfect.

title appropriate to the course

overall course was informative on point with each topic covered, great information for officer to understand how death scene works and how to work with coroner/ME

Great Class

The class was extremely informational and gives great reading materials for your own time.

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Good Class

Death Scene Investigation

Awesome online course, the material on the screen could be zoomed in when possible, otherwise, it is hard to see what the materials and what the instructor was referring to. Thanks!

Excellent material

Good review and understanding

Appropriate Title Course content was very relevant.

Good overview of suggestions and guidelines for first responders and detectives. Enjoyed the material.

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Good Description

Need bigger screen for visuals, but overall great class.

Death Investigation

Good course

Responding to Death Inv

Excellent

Great resource for LEO and MLDI

Will recommend to our administration and my co-workers!

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Great class and good material.

death investigation

great course easy understand clear voice teaching materials

Great Training

Very easy to understand and follow.

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

great class

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Great training

Course Review.

I'm currently a final year student, studying forensic chemistry. This course has been very hands on and informative. The information was very clear and the presentation of it was very much very creative. The knowledge I gained will definitely help me in my career. Also I'd like to talk the academy for offering this course for free, much appreciated.

Good

Excellent overview of the topics with really good detail of the subject areas. Sometimes had trouble seeing the screen. Instructor was great.

Good Refresher

Good substance, very well presented, except some the media was difficult to see when not zoomed in. My hope is to have this to refresh after completion with the subscription without taking the entire session.

Great title

Informative

Death Scene Investigation

Very well put together and easy to follow course. Learned things I had not known even though been in this field for 28 years.

Response and understanding a death scene

Overall great for an online training.

Great

Very straight forward lectures loaded with information!

Great Course

Very informative course with a good overview of different types of death scenes.

THIS COURSE WAS VERY EXCITING AND VERY EDUCATIONAL

THIS COURSE WAS VERY EXCITING AND VERY EDUCATIONAL

Very Good

Good information provided in a comfortable and complete format.

Good course

It taught me a lot and was very interesting but boring at times but I liked it.

Death investigation courses

Very knowledgeable and good information

Very good course

Nice supplement to my Forensic Medicine education. Thank you!

Death Investigation

On-line course: excellent course study with exceptional and necessary information.

Response and Understanding A Death Scene

very Informative

Excellent material

The material provided was easy to follow and understand.

Great!

This class was entertaining and informative!

Down time training

This was an excellent, well-instructed class for both entry level as well as refresher course level.

Death Investigation academy

Great Class very informative

Detail oriented and well presented

The information throughout the course is detailed, thoroughly covered, and presented in a concise manner. On a whimsical note, the presenter's voice sounds like Steve Carrell, which was not a negative issue, because of the topic and subject manner. These courses should be taken by any level of officer, agent, or commanding officer of all departments as a refresher, to ensure protocol and crime scene techniques continue to be followed, and nothing is overlooked. GREAT PRESENTATION!

Informative

Well structured and informative.

Review

Very informative and helpful documents.

Great Course

Instructor was very informative and kept it interesting. A must course for all first responders. I think everyone knowing this will assist in cross communication. Everyone knowing what everyone is trying to do on the scene can only help and will minimize mistakes while making everyone more efficient on the scene.

response and understanding a Death scene

There was good solid information and was presented well. demonstrations were difficult for on line students as I couldn't see what he was doing when using the dolls in his teaching. they were below the camera.

Playback

It was an inconvenience not being able to jump through different parts of the video after watching completely through once. Different presenters would be better as well

Good training material

Thank you so much for providing this training. Good refresher. I will recommend this course to other LEO.

Title was fitting

Thought it was really informative and interesting. Some of the sections where reviews of stuff I already learned from college classes. Other than that it was great, could do it at my own pace.

Not the usual high quality Dake training

The class room presentation style was not helpful for me. Waiting for students to answer questions and then not hearing those answers was a waste of time. Pictures, graphs and other information on the classroom screen was difficult to see. Also there was a lot of redundant material that had been covered in the prior course.

Death Investigation Academy

The course was a great general overview of approaching a death scene that teaches best practices for responding officers and detectives. The course is a basic overview for the most part, and additional training should be pursued by crime scene technicians who will identify, document, collect, package and preserved the physical evidence. Great course and a great refresher.

very informative

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Congrats

Thanks for everything! This helped me a lot Greetings from Chile

Response and Understanding Death Scenes

Much of it was review, but did take several ideas to pass along to my partners, especially on processing infant deaths. Thanks so much for making this available!

Great course for patrol or frontline supervisors

Flowed well with my work schedule. Very informative and relevant information.

Well Put Together and informative

Excellent class. For online version, it would be nice at the end of training to have access to the slide deck. Instructor sometimes skipped slides or they were able to be read on online screen.

Overall a 9.5

Too much information at once. It took me two days to work thru this course because of the amount of information. I'd suggest that you improve the ability to incorporate the slide series with your lecture and make it a seamless video approx 25 min in duration x4-6. It'll be easier and less distracting. In addition, I missed the animals in the first two sections, either they were displayed too briefly or I simply didn't notice them.

excellent video series

While I am not law enforcement, I thought it was useful information as a SAR person knowing what LE need to look for

Over all class

I enjoyed the class, Only thing I would have liked better is to have heard the questions being asked in the class on the video.

Review

Great course! Instructor is very knowledgeable in this field.

Excellent Course

I have been doing investigations for three years and some of this material was a great refresher but I also got a lot out of it as far as TTPs that we are not doing that we should do.

Response and understanding a death scene

I enjoyed the class and did learn new topics in the areas covered. I have had this class before and it was a good review for me thanks you.

Overall good course

Overall, I felt this was a good introductory course for LEOs and/or death investigators looking to enter the investigation field. The only thing I noticed and took issue with was the instruction of infant death, particularly reenactments. The instructor made the caveat that he PREFERS a face on the reenactments doll, and that is his prerogative. I have received previous instruction that the doll should be as generic as possible, a bean bag doll like he was describing, in order to prevent trauma to the reenactors as much as possible and remove the emotional charge from the scene. I just think that there shouldn't be a question on that point specifically, because it is debated in this field, so I had to go against my better judgement to answer correctly.

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Very good class with a lot of great information. I would recommend adding a rewind button for the videos so one could go back a few seconds if they missed something. Also some of the slides that were displayed in the class were hard to see in the videos.

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Very good however may I suggest that since there are various viewing mediums available ie TV, computer, IPad, Iphone - that the slides utilized within the presentation be enlarged for the viewer for a better view of the slide content - for those who wish to take notes. Thank you

Response and Understanding a Death Scene

Excellent courses. Very informative.

Extremely Helpful

I've been working on the federal level as an investigator for about 4 years now. Great refresher on response and very good lectures.

Response and Understanding Death Scene

This is a wonderful course, I wish to attend other courses online and plan attending an onsite training very soon. Thanks to the facilitator, you really did enough justice and your explanation and scenarios are well understood.

Death Investigation

This was a great class. It was very informative and taught me things I did not know.

Appropriate

Very Informative. Perfect for all levels of death investigator

Title was accurate of what the course taught

The presentation was excellent, had relevant information and kept the attention of the viewers. Only critique is that the power point slides were hard to see at times.

Great class. Very informative

Great examples

He provided great examples throughout the videos and was very in-depth.

Review and Rating of the Response and Understanding a Death Scene Course

This course is a must take refresher for all law enforcement. Not only to keep those investigators refreshed who have had the unfortunate experience of having to work a Death Scene but it also provides perspective to those who haven't. This course also provided a detailed "do or don't do" for first responders that is priceless for preservation of the scene for the detectives or investigators who follow. Being myself a FLETC trained CSI my opinion was this course was exceptionally well put together and I benefitted from every portion. Thank you for offering this free of charge and making access to the material so easy. Since a proper review is not complete with out an improve suggestion here are two, first make a ffw and rwd option available for sections once completed and second I saw a brief glimpse of a Blood Spatter slide, a few minutes of added lecture to explain the general dynamics of the subject may be helpful to LE for recognition, understanding and preservation, in the same way the rest of the course was. Very Respectfully James M. Deladurantaye