DS Scott Hannam is from the Bedfordshire police force and appeared in an episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody which focused on the arrest of 6 suspects after a violent street attack on a Luton high street.
Students studying Applied Criminology A Level and Level 3 Forensics and Criminal Investigation Extended Diploma, watched clips from the documentary and then DS Hannon talked them through the police procedures and processes involved in areas such as the personnel involved in the investigation, forensics and collecting and processing evidence, interviewing suspects, and the use of evidence in a criminal trial.
DS Hannam spoke about how detectives are trained to interview suspects and witnesses and how they all have their own style and techniques.
The suspects in the Luton case were not convicted, even though DS Hannon and his team were confident of the strength of the evidence against them, but he explained how the representation of the suspects in court as upstanding citizens with positive character witnesses meant that the jury found them not guilty.
The talk related to the modules the students are studying and gave them insight into real life cases, rather than just reading imagined case studies in a textbook.
After the talk students commented that the documentary and meeting DS Hannon showed that the police do everything they can to get justice.
Thank you to DS Hannam and the Bedfordshire Police Force for speaking to our students.
