Congratulations are in order to Corporal Ralph Mendenhall on completing 29 years of service to the Greenville Police Department. Ralph will be officially retiring from the Police Department effective February 1.
Ralph has spent the bulk of his career working in the Forensics Unit, concentrating on the meticulous and often unheralded task of crime-scene evidence analysis and processing.
Unlike the way it is popularized on television shows such as CSI, the forensics unit and evidence processing involves weeks and weeks of detailed minutia, paperwork, and tedium. A good forensics person spends hours in the lab or at a desk, evaluating items of evidence to try and find the truth. Each day, the forensics personnel sift through dozens of fingerprint cards, latent evidence cards, and fingerprint lift samples to classify fingerprints and possibly identify suspects in various criminal cases. They read and study documents. They perform tests on pieces of physical evidence. And they write a lot of reports.
Whenever the Police respond to a major crime scene, one of the first people through the door in the investigation is a Forensics Technician. The responsibilities are immense. The best analogy I can find to processing a crime scene is that to being an archaeologist in King Tut's tomb, sifting through items trying to determine which ones are significant and what stories they tell.
The Forensics Unit relies on many aspects of science, physics, and chemistry to help it find and explain the story behind a crime scene. Whether it be a blood spatter pattern, gunshot residue, DNA, or simply a footprint in the sand, the evidence that is preserved and identified, cataloged, analysed, and documented properly is the responsibility of the Forensics Unit. It can make or break a criminal case in court.
Ralph has been one of the best, and the Department has benefited from his dedication.
Congratulations, and Best wishes.
Unlike the way it is popularized on television shows such as CSI, the forensics unit and evidence processing involves weeks and weeks of detailed minutia, paperwork, and tedium. A good forensics person spends hours in the lab or at a desk, evaluating items of evidence to try and find the truth. Each day, the forensics personnel sift through dozens of fingerprint cards, latent evidence cards, and fingerprint lift samples to classify fingerprints and possibly identify suspects in various criminal cases. They read and study documents. They perform tests on pieces of physical evidence. And they write a lot of reports.
Whenever the Police respond to a major crime scene, one of the first people through the door in the investigation is a Forensics Technician. The responsibilities are immense. The best analogy I can find to processing a crime scene is that to being an archaeologist in King Tut's tomb, sifting through items trying to determine which ones are significant and what stories they tell.
The Forensics Unit relies on many aspects of science, physics, and chemistry to help it find and explain the story behind a crime scene. Whether it be a blood spatter pattern, gunshot residue, DNA, or simply a footprint in the sand, the evidence that is preserved and identified, cataloged, analysed, and documented properly is the responsibility of the Forensics Unit. It can make or break a criminal case in court.
Ralph has been one of the best, and the Department has benefited from his dedication.
Congratulations, and Best wishes.
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| GPD Forensics Unit 2013: front row: Cpl. Ralph Mendenhall, APO Wyatt Coltrain. back row: Ofc. Dan Wilkins, APO Earl Lavoie, Ofc. Charles Farrar |
I am always an ethusiast of crime evidence analysis and reading the news of a police from the forensics unit leaving service having honorably served is a feeling I can not hide. Congratulations once again even if it is too late
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