I'm back !!
My day two, at Kingston Police Station this time. The start of day 2 was much better from the beginning. Today, they sent a car round to pick me up in the morning, and brought me home at the end of day. Can't tell you how nice it was not to have to ride the Underground.
Met with Johathan Richard the head of the Scenes of the Crimes Unit in this part of London. Very nice man. Went over their practices and procedures, then assigned me to a Scene Manager, John. John and I went out and met with one of his Scene of the Crime Officers, Rob, who was working a burglary to an amusement park. They had 9 juveniles in custody for this burglary and needed to tie them to the crime. Rob is a young man probably in his early 20's and to his credit, very capable. Did his scene work not much different than we would. Photograph, dusted for prints, paint samples off of the wood door point of entry, and looked for blood, hair, fibers, blood. The differences are: they use only clear lifts, no white, no black backing, they use silver powder only, no black or any others, film camera only. Digital is only used for homicides, Rapes, and other serious crimes, and only by the photography unit....not CSI units. Not that they dont want to use digital, its about the $$. Sound familiar ?

Lunch at the local Pub....fish-n-chips, and a Guinness. What else would I have in London. They are just so amazed we don't have 3-4 beers at lunch.

Spent the rest of the day with Abbas Sheikh, Operations Manager, Forensic Services Command Unit. Very British gentleman. Very British. A tour of the processing lab there. Again, similar processing, ninhydrin, glue, DFO, ...

Good old classic Metro Police light sign.
Well you have to admit, they are color friendly cars.
Hard to explain, but the uniform officers who ride double in these cars, are not really cops, at least as we understand cops. No guns, they don't do traffic, they kind of ride around and do lots of public relations, and if something bad happens, they either do the best they can, or call in lots of support. There are these "special teams" kind of stationed around waiting for something like a bar fight or riot to happen, and they arrive to sort things out. Very odd, very different.
Doing my part in making London a safer place for everyone, except that I still want to drive on the wrong side of the road, and shifting with the left hand is no small task. In the end it was best that someone else drive and I very much agreed.

Tomorrow I'm off to a different station, and the main crime lab for serious crimes. Homicides, Robbery, and Sexual Crimes.

Day 1 Scotland Yard

Just so you have an idea. Up early, train station is about a half a mile away. Take train for two stops, exit train, get on to the London Underground, get off Underground two or three stops later and get off...get on another Underground in different direction....ride to St. James, and end at the Scotland Yard, or The Metropolitan Police if you would rather. Forget driving, no way. Even the locals dont drive in.
This is my host David Tadd, Head of the Forensics Unit, Serious Crimes, and the man responsible for this training. The Yard had a photographer come down and take a series of photographs that I will bring back with me. This is just one that he took with my camera so I could send it.
I spent all day here today and met with the heads of the burglary and homicide divisions, as well as the Yard historian, fingerprint sections of burglary, homicide, and the very cool...anti-terrorist unit. With 200 homicides a year, not including suicides, natural, industrial, they appear to have the system down well. Most obvious, is that they have the resources available to handle such a load. Teams respond to homicides (photographer, fingerprinting, evidence processing, collection, packaging) and a Scene of the Crime Manager. Way too much to mention here, but thats just a start of the players involved.
Everyone was most pleasant and made me feel very much at home. Long lunch with the department heads of fingerprints, burglary, homicide, and David, discussing the different and not so different issues and practices of our departments. We are not that much different at all. Their biggest complaint ? Uniform officers messing the crime scene up before the investigators arrive. No kidding.
One thing that was a little odd, but could get used to, the 5 of us had gin and tonics with lunch, and killed a bottle of a nice white wine....then went back to work. J.R, what do you think ?

I'll talk more about the Yard later. First day was teriffic. No doubt.

These things are parked all around the block where Scotland Yard is located. Two uniformed officers, one armed with a machine gun were walking the beat by the main entrance. Thats something you just dont see every day.

Note the pull down windshield cage to protect the glass from thrown rocks and bottles during riots.
Its been a very long day, near midnight, and I need to be at the Yard by 8:15 tomorrow.
Will update again tomorrow after my next adventure.

And so it begins...

Finally....finally I got to land in London. The Chief was correct, the ride from Miami to London is the most miserable, long, long, going against the clock, long, ... did I mention long.....ride. Got through Customs and wonders of all wonders, my luggage arrived with me. Changed my U.S. Dollars to British Pounds, and my friend Michael met me at the gate. All is well.
London Taxi Cabs at Heathrow Airport. Like a James Bond movie.

Ok, its the weekend, and I don't have to work the weekend. Not like I had enough airline abuse already...onto another plane, and off to see Ireland. It's like next door...sort of.



Just so you know its really me here.....

Garda, is Gaelic for Police. The Garda station in Blarney Ireland is in a two-story building, below a hotel for some reason.
Its the picture below that cracked me up.
Taped to the dashboard in the car !! You just can't make this stuff up.
A little side track in Blarney.
Blarney Castle, County Cork, Ireland
I am just so impressed on how they could have accomplished this. What a structure.
Standing at the top of Blarney Castle, looking out over the battlements.
View from the top of Blarney Castle. Can't believe I'm here.
Upper words on the sign are Gaelic, lower in English.
Kinsale is a small harbor town on the south end of Ireland. It's as chilly out as it looks in the picture. So far, lots of clouds, and light rain. Locals say its just the way it is.
Very narrow streets and everybody driving on the wrong side of the road.....much like Key West.

And as the sign says, this is a good end for today.

Off to Scotland Yard tomorrow, and the adventure begins for real.

More later.

Key West to London