DR. SMOCK … World renowned Dr. Bill Smock spoke during the Northwest Ohio SART Symposium on a variety of topics, including gunshot wounds. Here Dr. Smock discusses a Comet-Tailed Abrasion Collar – Pre-Surgical Debridement.
By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jacob@thevillagereporter.com
The 3rd Annual SART Symposium was held in Archbold and Defiance this past weekend. The SART or the Sexual Assault Response Team, put on this year’s symposium in order to cover special training on forensic gunshot wounds/ballistics. The event was open to law enforcement agencies from around the area.
The symposium began on Wednesday, April 24th at Northwest State Community College with the pre-conference.
During that time, Dr. Bill Smock, world-renowned speaker in all things forensics, spoke from 8:10 a.m. until after 4:00 p.m., with various breaks in between different modules.
Some of the modules discussed include analysis of officer-involved shootings, forensic evaluation of gunshot wounds during medical intervention, and creating a protocol for your hospital/agency for forensic evaluations of gunshot wounds.
On day two, the symposium moved over to the K of C Hall in Defiance. At that time, everyone heard from Forensic Nurse and Trafficking Survivor Rachel Fischer.
Nurse Fischer covered the topic: Human Trafficking – Investigation Tips from a Survivor and MDT Team Approaches to The Hidden Crimes in Human Trafficking.
Some items touched on during this module were how to build rapport with victims, interview techniques, identifying indicators of human trafficking, and more.
From there, Dr. Bill Smock ran the officers through different staged cases. It was the job of the officers to identify pattern injuries associated with blunt force trauma, strangulation, and suffocation, identify evidence associated with staged or altered death scenes, differentiate between typical and atypical entrance wounds, understand physical characteristics of gunshot wounds entrance, forensic documentation of death scenes and many more.
Day three was also held at the K of C Hall in Defiance and saw Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Detective John Morgan speak.
Other speakers that day included Retired Detective Sergeant, Perrysburg Township Police & Retired Senior Investigator Wood County Prosecutor’s Office Todd Curtis, Roberta Mack from Harmony Downing, and First Responder Wellness OH Dept. of Public Safety/Law Enforcement Initiatives Steven Click. These speakers helped to give officers another perspective, such as from nurses, law enforcement, attorneys, and social workers.
Altogether, the symposium ran for three days with officers receiving approximately 25 hours’ worth of instruction and hands-on training. Previous SART symposiums held in Northwest Ohio have covered Forensic Training in Strangulation Assessment Intimate Partner Violence, and Sexual Assault and Pediatrics.