Program Description

This program is based upon the personal experience of five nationally renowned experts who have careers as commanders, detectives, authors, lecturers and researchers.

The intensive course of instruction will cover the sequence of events which occur in a homicide. The program will focus on practical tactics, procedures, and forensic techniques which can be employed in sound, efficient and professional investigations. This course will also feature Cold Case Investigation, the BTK investigation, equivocal death, "missed" murder investigations, Officer Involved Shootings, psychological profiling, and Interivew and Interrogation.

Sessions are scheduled from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each of the five days.

Tuition for the five-day course is $595 per person. This includes five days of instruction, handouts, course certificate and coffee breaks. Hotel rooms blocked at the seminar rate are limited so early registration with the hotel is encouraged (info provided below).

UPDATE: A limited number of rooms have been obtained at the blocked seminar rate. As of Thursday, October 11th, only Sunday - Thursday nights are available. You must make reservations by Friday, October 19, 2007 in order to obtain seminar pricing on a space-available basis. Contact the hotel as early as possible. For those who need additional hotel rooms, contact The Orleans Hotel for recommendations.

Note: The 3-day Practical Homicide Investigation Course is NOT a prerequisite for this course. Each course may be taken in any order and compliments the other. Course material for the 5-day program is entirely different, and taught by several additional nationally renowned experts with actual practical experience in their topics related to homicide investigations.

Seminar Location and Hotel Information

The Orleans Hotel & Casino
4500 W. Tropicana Ave., Las Vegas, Nevada 89103
702-365-7111 or 800-ORLEANS (800-675-3267)
www.orleanscasino.com

Until October 12, 2007, a limited number of hotel rooms have been blocked at The Orleans with the following rates: Sunday - Thursday 11-11-07 - 11-15-07, $75 plus Clark County room tax. The rate for Friday 11-16-07 is $130 plus County tax.You must mention Advanced Practical Homicide Investigation Seminar when you make your reservations in order to receive the seminar room rates. After October 12, 2007, the blocked rooms may no longer be available and you will have to pay the regular room rates.

Who Should Attend

Detectives, Crime Scene Investigators, Investigators assigned to Homicide Units and Special Victim's Units, Prosecuting Attorneys, Chiefs, Sheriffs, Troopers, Police Training Staff Members, and Officers in Charge of Investigations.

Instructors

Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S.
Author, national consultant, retired Lieutenant-Commander, NYPD
Topics: Advanced Tactics, Procedures and Forensic Techniques, Equivocal Death, and Missed Investigations

Larry J. Thomas
Assistant Director, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, KBI Special Agent in Charge - BTK Serial Killer Task Force
Topic: The BTK Investigation

Dr. Richard E. Ovens, Psy. D.
National Lecturer, 30 years NY State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation
Topic: Interview and Interrogation

Dave Hatch
Expert and Author, Homicide Detective Las Vegas Metro PD, Retired
Topic: Officer Involved Shooting Incidents

Richard H. Walton, Ed. D
Expert and Author, Cold Case Homicide
Topic: Cold Case Homicide Investigation

Additional Instructor Information

Lt. Cmdr. Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S.

Commander Vernon Geberth is retired Lieutenant-Commander of the New York City Police Department with over 40 years of law enforcement experience. Commander Geberth is a nationally renowned lecturer, author, educator, consultant and expert witness on the subject of death investigation. He has appeared in numerous local, national and international television programs answering questions on the subject of murder, and providing insight, analysis and commentary with respect to all aspects of homicide and death investigations. Geberth has been referenced as a media consultant on a myriad of national major cases across the United States and Canada. Over 50,000 members from over 7,500 law enforcement agencies have attended Geberth's PRACTICAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION® seminars.

KBI Assistant Dir. Larry J. Thomas

Assistant Director Larry Thomas has over twenty years of professional law enforcement experience with an impressive educational background including a Bachelor’s Degree, a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the prestigious Royal Canadian Mounted Police College, at Ottawa, Canada.  Larry is an adjunct professor at Washburn University in the Criminal Justice Department has taught throughout the United States regarding various aspects of law enforcement, specializing in interview and interrogation, serial crimes, homicide and unsolved death investigations.  Thomas received a Kansas House of Representatives Commendation along with the BTK Task Force for the resolution of the BTK case.

Dr. Richard E. Ovens, Psy. D.

Dr. Ovens has over 40 years of law enforcement experience.  He is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, and a National Certified Counselor, with Board Certification by the National Board for Certified Counselors. Dr. Ovens is currently an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Counseling and Development at Long Island University, and Coordinator of the Counseling Graduate Program at the United States Military Academy, West Point.  Dr. Ovens was a member of the New York State Police for thirty years. He served in the Uniform Force and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.  As a Commissioned Officer, he supervised the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s statewide adoption of cases, Polygraph and Forensic Hypnosis programs, and oversight of the computerized reporting system.  Dr. Ovens lectures nationally on a variety of psychological topics, the investigation of violent crime and the interrogation of violent serial offenders.

Detective Dave Hatch

Detective Hatch has over thirty years of law enforcement experience.  During his twenty-seven years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department he personally investigative over 400 homicides and100 officer involved shooting cases.  Detective Hatch is also the recipient of numerous commendations.   Detective Hatch also has an extensive background in specialized training.  Dave has taught classes on Use of Force Policy, Officer Involved Shootings, Investigation of In-Custody Deaths, and Crime Scene Preservation.  Dave Hatch served on the Detective Bureau Performance Evaluation Committee and the Firearms Committee, which involved re-writing the department’s firearms training policy and research on authorized weapons and ammunition. He is the author of “Officer-Involved Shootings and Use of Force 2nd Edition” CRC Press, LLC 2007.  Detective Hatch is a nationally recognized expert on use of force and officer involved shootings and has received many awards for his work in this field. 

Dr. Richard H. Walton, Ed. D
Cold Case Homicide Investigation Expert/Author

Dr. Walton has over thirty-five years of law enforcement experience.  Walton served with the Humboldt County, California, Sheriff’s Department for sixteen years during which time he earned his Master’s Degree in Education. In 1987 he was promoted to District Attorney Investigator with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office where he gained extensive experience and expertise in homicide, arson, white-collar crime, elder abuse, and fraud investigations.  Dr. Walton is the author of “Cold Case Homicide: Practical Investigative Techniques” 2006.  He received his Doctor of Education degree from the University of San Francisco in 2005, writing his academic dissertation on identification of solvability factors in cold case homicide investigation. Richard has presented on “Cold Case” homicide investigation for more than 20 years.  He has presented this topic to a number of law enforcement and forensic venues, including the FBI National Academy, The American Academy of Forensic Sciences, National Institute of Justice, Pennsylvania State Homicide Investigator’s Association, California Criminalists Institute and the Vidocq Society.

Photo Sources: Geberth - Court TV www.CrimeLibrary.com , Thomas, Ovens and Hatch - PHI Consultants

Dr. Walton is the author of Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques. The book merges theory with practice through the use of case histories, photographs, illustrations, and checklists that convey essential, fundamental concepts while providing a strong, practical basis for the investigative process. It combines proven techniques from forensics, psychology, and criminal investigation, and focuses on technologies that may not have been available at the time of the crime. This guide defines the characteristics of a cold case homicide; details various investigative methods used by law enforcement agencies; explores the actual experiences of detectives in re-opening case files; and presents current technologies such as ViCAP, HITS, and TracKRS used in the identification of cases related to the re-opened case, or its perpetrator. It also highlights technological changes that contribute greatly to law enforcement's abilities to solve cold case homicides such as computerized print technology, the specificity of DNA, and the expanding data banks that enable the linkage of previously unknown suspects to the crimes they committed. Addressing methods particularly valuable to cold cases.

Photo and review source: CRC Taylor & Francis

Detective Hatch is the author of " Officer-Involved Shootings and Use of Force: Practical Investigative Techniques, Second Edition. continues to provide sound and sober models, protocols, and procedures to handle the highly charged fall-out from officer involved shootings. Written by cops for cops, it is designed to address the needs of the agency, the rights of the employee, and the concerns of the public, and give law enforcement the policies and tools to properly investigate and document this high profile area.

The second edition includes contributions from Randy Dickson, one of the nation's leading experts, who presents new recommendations for post-incident support and the emotional aspect of these traumatic events. New chapters include a study of incidents involving less lethal weapons, such as Tasers, a model policy for documenting these incidents, and the latest findings on positional asphyxia and Excited Delirium Deaths. The book also includes additional information on report writing and the proper handling of media and public information policy. The author offers expert tips on procedures including handling suspects, interviewing witnesses and employees, and investigating the scene, as well as critical points for working with assisted suicides. New, up-to-date case studies from media-famous current events and the author's 27 years of experience in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department illustrate and explain the need for consistent, reliable protocols to protect the agency, the officer, and the public from unnecessary litigation, public distrust, media frenzy, and harm to either the agency's or the officer's reputation.

Photo and review source: CRC Taylor & Francis

Vernon J. Geberth is the author of the new and completely revised, PRACTICAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques. FOURTH EDITION (2006 CRC PRESS, LLC, Boca Raton, Florida). PRACTICAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION® is recognized in the law enforcement field as "The Bible of Homicide Investigation".

Photo source: Practical Homicide Investigation®

Geberth is also the author of the nationally renowned textbook, Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation: Practical and Clinical Perspectives (2003 CRC PRESS, LLC, Boca Raton, Florida) which provides a frame of reference to address the proliferation of sex-related homicides and the clinical siginificance of psychopathic sexual sadism as it relates to the investigative process.

Photo source: Practical Homicide Investigation®

All of Vernon Geberth's previous textbooks have received international acclaim and The PRACTICAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION Checklist and Field Guide is considered by professionals as an essential prerequisite in conducting proficient death inquiries.

Photo source: Practical Homicide Investigation®