WPD receives grant for investigative equipment
The Winnemucca Police Department/City of Winnemucca is pleased to announce it has received $75,749 from the 2021 Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) FY 21 Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative for Law Enforcement Agencies (RVCRI). The grant was used to purchase 3D crime scene reconstruction equipment and software.
“I am proud to have this technology in our community. This will help reduce our dependency on the Washoe Crime Lab and speed up our investigations and reduce the crime lab expenses for our community and the tax payers,” says Mayor Rich Stone/City of Winnemucca.
The Winnemucca Police Department (WPD) obtained the 3D Laser Scanner equipment to support violent crime investigation and accident reconstruction analysis in the rural Nevada jurisdictions of Humboldt County, Pershing County, and Lander County. This technology enhances the department’s ability to investigate and prosecute offenders in violent crimes and fatal traffic crashes in our rural jurisdictions.
The WPD has partnered with Nevada State Police-Highway Patrol, Lander County Sheriff’s Office, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and Pershing County Sheriff’s Office to make this technology available to each agency. Since receiving the equipment and certified training in July 15, 2022 local law enforcement agencies have used the equipment on 2 homicides/murders, 2 death investigations, 1 fire investigation resulting in an injury, and 5 crash fatalities.
Violent crimes are not unique to metropolitan areas and are occurring more frequently in rural areas. We have also had many crash scenes with major injuries without a way to document the scene properly. The rural agencies in our region do not have the modern technology available to investigate these types of incidents due to limited budgets. Currently, the WPD spends approximately $74,000 a year on services for a Field Investigative team sent from Washoe County, Nevada that often use the same tools and technology we purchased using this grant funding. Our area agencies also spend extra money on overtime to investigate these crimes, especially when trying to diagram and capture the scene. Using this equipment will hopefully reduce that cost associated with outsourcing investigation work and money spent on overtime.
Crashes and violent crime scenes are quite complicated events. The size of violent crime scenes or accidents are often in complex areas or in large areas of the roadway. At a typical scene, law enforcement officers/detectives must decide which parts of the scene are relevant to their case and; what to photograph, measure, and collect. This typically involves using traditional tools such as tape measures, measuring wheels, still and video cameras, and total stations to capture location images of walls, doors, furniture, and many different kinds of objects. Given the magnitude of evidence at a scene, and in many scenarios, the cramped space in which a team has to work, can make it an extremely difficult task. Determining which items are significant in a limited time span can be a challenge using traditional methods; it can take days to document everything. Often, the relevancy of various artifacts and images are not known until later in the investigation, at which point, the scene is already cleared, and additional measurements are impossible to collect. The 3D laser scanning technology will allow the scene to be captured as it was in a dimensionally correct diagram and generate a three-dimensional recreation of the scene that is often required for additional analysis or court.
The listed agencies have agreed to partner in the success of providing high quality crime scene reconstruction for victims of violent crimes in our local jurisdictions using the 3D scanner and software. The grant project was supported with funding from BJA FY21 RVCRI for Law Enforcement Agencies. This equipment and software will be the sole property of the Winnemucca Police Department but will be made available, when not in use, to the partner agencies for use documenting violent crimes and/or crashes with substantial bodily injury or death. This technology will enhance the ability to investigate and prosecute offenders in violent crimes and complex traffic crashes in our rural jurisdictions. We will bring a higher level of trust to our communities by being able to provide a higher level of expertise using the resources and technology from this project and funding. The role of each agency will provide for an overall success of the project.
The RVCRI is an effort, funded by BJA, to provide funding and assistance to rural law enforcement agencies seeking to reduce violent crime and address problems associated with violent crime. The RVCRI is currently accepting applications for the next round of funding – up to $150,000 per agency! Awards are made on a competitive basis with the next cohort application deadline being December 15, 2022.
Funding and support are available for implementing violent crime reduction strategies, improving investigations, improving services to victims, and for enhancing collaboration between local stakeholders. This will be achieved through the provision of training; deployment of technology; improvement of communication and collaboration between stakeholders; and expansion of community-based crime prevention programs and partnerships with victim services providers. This initiative is intended to improve communication and collaboration between state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, and the communities they serve to address the unique criminal justice challenges in rural areas. Additional information can be found on the RVCRI website: www.RuralVCRI.org.