Monthly Speakers Reports

2019

After a lovely summer break Kirby Muxloe WI started their Autumn programme with guest speaker Paul Taberner ex policeman ,talking about his time as a CSI Investigator for the West Midlands Police Force.

Paul came along and told us the reality of Crime Scenes Investigations, which as it turned out was a lot different from that depicted in television dramas! Paul worked for the Warwickshire police but his work took him to other neighbouring counties. He told us that everyone suffers from “Confirmation Bias” and that during training that had to be eliminated to enable officers to investigate criminal scenes in an unbiased way.

Paul explained how everything would be photographed and videoed then put into a computer system called “HOLMES” and who's backup computer was called “Watson” ,someone certainly had a sense of humour.

He went on to dispel many myths surrounding TV CSI programmes such as the huge whiteboards you see displaying evidence photographs etc. none of which are used in real life. He told us interesting stories of clever criminals, like the one who pulled off a valuable jewellery heist, and amusing ones of the less clever budding criminal who threw away £2 coins because he thought they were “foreign money” and the miniscule evidence that gives them away. It was interesting to learn that the British Forensic Research and Development organisation in Warwickshire helped in the identification of some 30 victims of the Twins Towers atrocity.
Paul told us how he liaised with TV and Film Producers about the procedures to follow but also stated that it is after all TV/Film and it has to be watchable and interesting for the viewer. Unfortunately its not always like that in real life and for the most part it is time consuming and laborious but could be interesting work.