WEST HAVEN–The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science hosted its annual Arnold Markle Symposium two weeks ago. The symposium is in honor of the late Arnold Markle, who was a well known prosecutor for the City of New Haven and a friend to many in the forensic science field.
This year, the symposium focused on the Investigation of International Crimes. On April 12, the American Criminal Justice Association hosted a trip for 20 students and an advisor to attend this two-day symposium. Students were able to hear from some of the best professionals in the criminal justice and forensic science fields.
The first day was kicked off with a presentation by Dr. Henry Lee, who as always got the attendees involved with some morning laughs. As the day went on, the excitement started to build for the speaker directly after lunch who was Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator. As expected, he discussed the show, how it came to be what it is and the direction it will be going in the future. Guest speakers for Monday also included Howard Safir (former NYPD commissioner) and Avi Domb (Division of Identification, Israeli Police). That evening students had some time to shop, eat and socialize at the conference center.
After reading the biographies for Tuesday’s speakers, day two was shaping up to be another great day, and the speakers definitely lived up to student expectations. Dwight Adams started the day with a presentation on the FBI response to terror attacks that discussed many global terrorism issues such as the Kosovo War Crimes. He was followed our own Mario Gaboury who discussed global human trafficking. Dr. Gaboury was able to open eyes to a large issue that is not ending soon enough. One of the last presentations was by two U.S. attorneys who discussed white-collar crime and shared wiretaps and key points of the investigation with attendees.
Overall, the students were able to get a new perspective on what issues are prevalent on an international scale. We hope to make this an annual conference for students to attend.
