New centre offers ‘real world’ training for CSIs
Crime scene investigators (CSIs) will benefit from “real world” training following the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility for the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The CSI training centre at Wetherby police station includes a classroom, a fully set up residential house, a corner shop, estate agents, a pub and a car garage for vehicle examination.
It will be used to train both new and current CSIs from the four forces of West Yorkshire Police, Humberside Police, North Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Police. It will also be open to representatives of other forces.
Pete Arnold, head of operations for the Regional Scientific Support Service, said: “As a large organisation we have a lot of CSIs that need training; this facility will provide state-of-the-art training in a realistic setting as if they were doing the job in the real world.
“While the centre will be primarily used by CSIs based across the Yorkshire and Humber region, it will also be open for delegates from other police forces across the country.
‘We’ve turned an old three-bedroom police house into a domestic house, like you and I would live in. This house is used to simulate real-life scenarios like burglaries, thefts, sexual assaults and murders.
‘We’ve also converted some garage space to create our own small parade of shops, which include a pub, local shop and estate agents. We also have a garage where we can forensically examine vehicles.
‘We can’t wait to introduce more trainees to the facility and train the CSIs of the future.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Patrick Twiggs, head of crime for West Yorkshire Police and the Regional Organised Crime Unit, added: “This facility is absolutely fantastic and I’ve been blown away; this is great news for the Yorkshire and Humber region.
‘There’s a number of locations where we can train our CSI colleagues but equally we can use it to train detectives and the senior investigating officers of the future in all aspects of major crime and investigation.”
He added: “This is an essential tool for solving crime as we work together with our CSI and forensic colleagues.
‘I think it’s really important in terms of training that you have an effective and realistic training environment. You don’t have to pretend, you can immerse yourself as if you were at a real-life crime scene.”
