By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Students Marysol Damo, left, and Shelle Santoki gather evidence at a mock crime scene under a police mentorship program.

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Student scientists
learn ‘backbone’
of police work

Young investigators
put on HPD gloves
to assist in
gruesome situations

By Jaymes K. Song
Star-Bulletin

Marysol Damo scanned the living room before collecting every scrap of evidence: broken jalousie windows stained with blood, a can of soda on the end table, a note and a dead body.

A man had been shot and killed, and Damo's job was to put the pieces together.

Damo, a senior at Radford High School, has been learning for about four days how to be an evidence specialist for the Honolulu Police Department.

"It's interesting," she said. "You really get to know what goes on at the HPD."

"I never thought about the whole story behind it and what they went through to convict the person," Damo said.

Damo is part of an 11-day program that teaches high school students about forensic science. Twelve students were selected from a pool of 51 applicants from around the state. They were selected to participate based on grades, recommendations, an essay, extracurricular activities and interest in science.

The class is being taught by scientists in the Police Department's Scientific Investigation Section.

After collecting the evidence from the mock crime scene, the students must preserve it, run lab tests on it, write reports and re-create what happened before a grand jury.

The students work just as a real investigator would, all the way to wearing plastic gloves and identification cards.

"The students who applied show an interest in science, and we just want to introduce them to another facet of science," said police evidence specialist Hugh Okubo. "We want to give them some knowledge of how science can be applied to law enforcement."

University High School senior David Fox said that before taking the class, he thought an officer just went to a crime scene, recovered some stuff and went back to the station.

"I realized the HPD did a lot more work than I thought they did," said Fox. "They have a lot of work they've got to do. I give them a lot more credit now than I did before."

He learned that the evidence specialists recover all the evidence and the officers are only there to preserve the scene.

"I realized when they go to a scene, they've got to do everything and do it right," he said. "Stuff they present is fact."

The evidence recovered by investigators is just as important to the case as the arrest. However, they are rarely recognized for the prosecution of an individual.

The information they unravel could be used to prosecute a suspect or even prove innocence.

"It's very rewarding because you're part of the legal team to put real bad criminals behind bars and get a job done," said evidence specialist Marcus Chang, who has worked for HPD for eight years. "The public doesn't know us too well, but we are the backbone of proving the case."

To become a police evidence specialist, a person needs a four-year degree, preferably in a science, and a tolerance for seeing gruesome crime scenes - something that Damo admits she doesn't have.

"I love scary movies but I know this is real," she said. "It creeped me out."