Promoting the Hobby Through Law Enforcement

[Richard@BackwoodsDetectors]

[size=large]A friend of mine is a Lt. on the local police force and he contacted me to help find some stolen jewelry that had been buried. Starting out, there was 3 Sheriff Deputies and 2 Policemen. I told everyone what to look for but as the morning wore on, they starting dropping out because of the high heat and humidity. At about 11:30, my friend hollered at me and said " Let's go, were not going to find it." I told him to give me a few more minutes. WITHIN 5 MINUTES, I FOUND THE JEWELRY STASH AND DRUGS. What is sad, is that one of the thieves, told the other that he had buried the drugs so they could back and get everything. Duuuuhh,, he lied, he took the drugs for himself. He only buried the empty bottles. (I had to go through every item since I found it and it was logged by them for the lawyers)
Circumstances haven't arisen since but they want to use me to recover items if a detector is needed.. Richard[/size]

 

[GeorgeinSC]

Good Job Richard. I need to talk to the Lt. (City Police) that lives next door.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Thanks for donating your time to help law enforcement Richard, it pays big dividends in many ways from gratitude to getting new places to hunt.....

Local police know of our club and we have been called to help find evidence at crime scenes. Nancy and I got certified as CSI instructors and teach proper metal detector use in the Crime Scene Investigation Technology classes at the local college. Our hobby is what you make of it and goes far beyond finding lost change in tot lots....

 

[nwtreasure]

its funny that i came across this thread. I have been thinking of doing the same thing in my local city. I know several people in law enforcement and i have already put the feelers out there to see if this is something that they even allow volunteers to help with.
but i have not officially contacted the local police departments to offer help.
I have a couple questions for people that have already done this.
1. Is it a liability to the investigation to have non law enforcement help find lost items? some items may be very sensitive--bullets, casings, murder weapons, etc.
2. if you do find something will you need to make yourself available for testimony at court?
3. is special bonding or licensing required to be involved?

richard, were these issues ever brought up with you helping?

 

[irnwrkr]

Get anything up around Johnson city, Kingsport, you can't get to holler at me see if I'm available