March 29, 2024

‘Working for the victim’ in crime scene investigations

Illinois State Police trooper speaks at IAW annual meeting

URBANA, Ill. — The work by Illinois State Police troopers in the crime scene division is focused on the victims.

“Whether it’s a burglary or a death investigation, I’m working for the victim,” said Trooper Bridget Howard, who spoke during the Illinois Agri-Women annual meeting.

“That’s what helps keep me going because there are times I have to see really bad stuff,” said Howard, who is in her eighth year as an Illinois State Police trooper.

“We primarily work for outside agencies, county and local departments who can call on us anytime they need assistance with a crime scene or something processed,” she said.

When first applying to become an Illinois State Police trooper, Howard knew she did not want to work on the road for her career.

“But there are so many divisions like investigations, crime scene and medical fraud, that I decided to apply,” she said.

After completing the six-month academy, Howard’s first assignment was in District 17, which includes Putnam, Bureau and La Salle counties, about three hours north of her home in Vandalia.

“I had never heard of La Salle-Peru, and I learned that it snows in October, which is not normal for the Vandalia area,” she said.

After two years, Howard began working in District 12, where she was on the road for about a year.

“Crime scene is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Howard said. “Now I work in Region 4 with crime scene that covers 36 counties, and my office is in Effingham. There are six working CSIs.”

Although is on the road a lot traveling in her region to get to crime scenes, she does not make traffic stops.

“We strictly do crime scene work because our squads are not set up for traffic stops, we don’t have the lights that we need,” she said.

Working on crime scenes, Howard said, is different than many people envision.

“What you see on TV is not how it is in the field,” she stressed. “We have some things that are similar, but we don’t get Hummers to drive.”

Although the Howard works Monday through Friday, someone is always on call to provide 24/7 coverage.

“I’ve probably worked about 350 cases, and on average, we try to work about 100 cases a year,” she said. “We try to help each other a lot, and if it is a homicide scene, all the CSIs that are working are at the scene.”

The crime scene troopers work with a variety of situations.

“We do property crimes such as burglary, recovering stolen vehicles and property damage,” Howard said. “We do crimes against persons that include aggravated battery, sexual assault and domestic battery, as well as death investigations.”

“When we process a scene it is strictly a death investigation because it is not our job to make a call,” she said. “Sometimes if you jump too far ahead in thinking it’s one thing and not the other, you might miss something.”

For death investigations, the trooper always attends the autopsy.

“We always follow the body,” she said.

At scenes, the troopers will process for fingerprints, footwear and red blood-like substance or stains.

“It is not always about what you see at a crime scene. Sometimes it’s about what you don’t see,” Howard said.

“We see a lot of suicide, and I didn’t realize there were so many suicides until I started working in crime scene,” she said. “It’s very common, and it’s a sad thing to know it happens as often as it does.”

The call-out schedule, Howard said, can be a struggle some weeks.

“You never know when your phone is going to ring, and one Saturday I was out for 12.5 hours,” she said. “If you don’t work in law enforcement, it’s really hard to understand because you never know what you’re going to run into.”