A group of students from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at The University of Texas at Arlington won first place at the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Competition. This was the first year UTA participated in this event.
Patricia Eddings, director of the Forensic Applications of Science and Technology (FAST) minor program and the group's sponsor, said it was wonderful to watch the team in action and see how professional and meticulous they were during the competition.
"I'm extremely proud of the work the team did, especially with all the circumstances and this being the first time many of the students did something like this," said Eddings. "I have such great students, and I'm tremendously grateful they get to be recognized for their hard work."
Jacey Concannon, a second-year biology major with a FAST minor, said the team didn't have expectations to win first place; they just wanted to enjoy the competition and be able to apply what they learned in Eddings' classes.
"The whole team was a little nervous because it was the first time we implemented the skills we learned in class," said Concannon. "We took our time to try and process everything and make sure that we were properly documenting and collecting evidence, and I think we did a great job as a team. It was a lot of fun bringing in a bunch of new people that I'd never met and seeing how we worked together to process the scene."
For the CSI Competition, the team—Concannon, Shannell Prince, Andrea Esparza, Mahek Jaffer and Joseline Guerrero—had one hour to photograph, sketch and document a crime scene. Each team member played a different role, and they worked together to make sure they were processing everything correctly and hitting all the items on their checklist.
The judges commented that the team "demonstrated a high level of competence" and provided a professional evidence log and a comprehensive narrative. They added the group "represented the university well, and their professors should be proud of the job they did."
Esparza, a graduating psychology major with a FAST minor, said that as the team prepared for the competition they were constantly motivating and reminding each other to just have fun. Once it was their turn to compete, they combined their knowledge and just did what they'd been taught by Eddings.
"We were all so happy when we found out we won first place," said Esparza. "We were all nervous the entire time and left feeling like we did bad because we took the full hour to go through the scene. However, it turns out taking your time and being thorough pays off."
