Well, it’s the third day of the CCDS and I just got out of the Eyewitness ID workshop. It was grrrrreat! We had Dr. Steve Clarke (UC Riverside) and Dr. Deborah Davis (University of Nevada - Reno) make excellent presentations. Dr. Davis had a great presentation which included several great examples of reasons that eyewitness testimony is so "iffy." One example was an amazing demonstration of SELECTIVE ATTENTION. Before you click on the link make sure you do the following...After the Java video loads...YOU MUST KEEP TRACK OF HOW MANY TIMES THE WHITE TEAM PASSES THE BASKETBALL TO EACHOTHER. The video takes a bit to load but after you watch it once, follow the instruction at the end of this blog.
Our days have been starting at 8:30am when the morning Plenary begins. After that, every 1 ½ hours we go to different workshops, from which there at least 10 to choose from. I think someone can come to the CCDS every year and never be able to make it to all the workshops. When I get back to the hotel room tonight, I’m gonna try and put together a couple of good links to some of the speakers today. When I get back home on Monday night, I’ll try and put up a more extensive list. It’s good shit people...and if we want to make a difference in the work we do we MUST stay educated and up to date on this stuff! It's unfortunate that they don't have continuing education requirements for investigators in California...If we want to be considered professionals, we should start to expect more from eachother.
You know, I was on the phone this morning with an old roomate that is working as a police officer in the south bay area of Nocal...what?...I know, I know...I tried talking him out of it but he gave me some crap about wanting to make a difference and it was the only way he knew how...well, I knew him BEFORE he became a cop so I figure it’s ok to associate with him...in dark bars and private homes....never in public of course!
Anyhoot...the point is, we have another mutual buddy that went to law school and has been an attorney for the last three years...he just got out of rehab for drinking and other fun stuff. It’s great that he’s out and doing well but it really got me thinking about the amount of substance abuse all the attorneys and investigator I know are involved in to a certain extent...mostly it’s drinking but I’ve been watching a lot of attorneys at this conference and actually ran into many of them at the bar last night. Is it possible that we can't do this type of work without the escape of alcohol or some other type of mood/mind altering substance?
Just a thought...I’m more into the one night a month "let’s get shitfaced" episode with old friends but geezus...is it possible that I can be one of those "old timers" in 20 years that can’t spend a night without my tumbler of whiskey? Almost makes me want to go grab a pint of Guiness to ponder the possibilities....
Did you watch the video? Good. Now...watch that same video again. Only this time WATCH THE BLACK TEAM...Did you notice that missed something the first time you watched the video? Yup....it's friggin amazing! It really makes you think about what witnesses don't see that are right in front of their faces!
1 comment:
Dude. I hear you. I got out of investigation about seven years ago and a lot of that had to do with the lack of coping mechanism.
PD work is brutal. I spent four years cutting my teeth on crazy investigations and assisting with Defense Investigations - never mind the billing issues, it was always a pain to see the ripping apart of people's lives when someone does something catastrophically stupid... or 'doesn't do' that same thing.
As far as witnesses go - wasn't there some show that came on recently on HBO (What the **** are we made of) that talked about how the Indians who saw the Columbus ships didn't even realize they were there because they just had no capacity for describing them...?
Oh well, look it up on YouTube or something.
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