Inching closer towards graduation, the Park Police Reservist program moved into their next phase of instruction: criminal investigations. 

They are serving as instructors for this week-long course where some of the detectives from the Guam Police department. 

GPD Detective Eric Mondia said, “No one in their right mind is going to want to come to the police and say- hey, I killed this person. This is the weapon I used. This is my clothing. It doesn't happen that way. People are prone to confess to theft, or to an assault, or family violence than they would to a homicide.” 

Mondia, along with Lt. Eugene Charfauros, CSI Investigator Franki J. Santos, and fellow detectives Angel R.A. Santos IV, Arthur B. Diola Jr., and Joneen Terlaje was present for the week-long criminal investigations course.

The first day covered body preservation and homicides

“Every single death investigation, although the circumstances may be the same, the outcome is different,” said Mondia. 

To patrol level report writing and investigation, and the CID investigation process, Mondia added, “Once you become sworn officers, you guys will be able to take preliminary reports, you are going to be able to call police dispatch and get a case number and generate a preliminary report.” 

Charfauros also added, “That's a very important factor, as a patrol officer, you being the first one on the scene, you have to take note of.”

Next in the course was the interviewing and interrogation process. Santos went over some best practices for conducting interviews using interactive sessions.

“Throughout our experience first confessions are always half-truths, they are never going to give you the full confession unless they're absolutely guilty and they're caught red handed. If you only have facts, and you don't have hard evidence, like surveillance of the person actually doing it, there are people that will still lie to you after you show them the video,” said Santos. 

He added that once they vocalize their denial, the odds are stacked against the officer to get a confession.

The rest of the week, Terlaje and Diola covered the role and responsibilities of the Domestic Assault Response Team and how to take a report when it comes to family violence and sexual assault case.

Closing out the week, reservists learned about neurobiology of trauma and crime scene investigation including implications for investigative practices and victim interaction by Santos and Charfauros.

Mondia said, “If you did not have any law enforcement experience and this is the first time you are coming into a law enforcement entity, you will be able after this course go out there and do your best with whatever knowledge we're going to provide you.”

Next, reservists will touch on understanding criminal law with Attorney Peter Santos.