UF students and Gainesville residents will have the chance to solve crimes with the opening of a crime scene investigations course.
Crime Scene Investigation Academy of Florida, 12787 U.S. Highway 441 in Alachua, has previously been open only to law enforcement. But now it will open its doors to the public.
The 40-hour training course is designed for those who are interested in entering the crime scene investigation field, said CSI Academy Manager Debbie Mongiardo. Students will receive credits to become certified in crime scene investigation.
The course will be from March 4 to March 8. Each class will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We want to give students who are interested in crime scene investigation an opportunity to explore the field and get hands-on experience in an area that they are passionate about,” Mongiardo said.
For enrollment, applicants must have a high school diploma, be at least 18 years old and pass a background check.
Mongiardo said the academy will accept the first 20 people who apply on the academy’s website or via telephone.
The course will consist of lectures and hands-on activities, which include lifting fingerprints, labeling evidence and analyzing blood spatter, Mongiardo said.
“Students will be in and out of simulated crime scenes all week,” she said.
Marc Trahan, an instructor at the academy, said the activities will give students more experience in crime scene investigations.
“It gives the student everything that they need to have a good foundation for having an ability to process and present their cases for court,” he said.
At Gainesville Police, officers are usually hired within the department to crime scene investigations, said GPD Spokesman Officer Ben Tobias.
Although getting into the forensics field can be a two- to three-year process, Tobias said, students can use the skills they learn in the academy when they apply for jobs.
“Having gone through the CSI Academy will give them a little bit of edge because they already have the knowledge and that training,” he said.
Upon completing the training, students will receive a CSI kit and a certificate of completion for the 40 credit hours, which can be applied toward his or her crime scene certification, Mongiardo said.
Michael Thompson, director of the academy, said students will also leave with a portfolio of their work, which will include crime scene photographs, sketches and castings.
The academy is the only private school in Florida that teaches crime scene investigation.
In November, the Florida Department of Education granted the academy its provisional license, and the school started teaching classes to law enforcement officials the next month, Mongiardo said.
Trahan said the classes can be beneficial not only to students and officers, but also to the public.
“When we have the best chance to get the best evidence that we can possibly get,” he said, “we’ll have better evidence to get somebody off the street, and that makes the public safer.”
