University creates new crime scene training facility

One of the biggest crime scene training facilities for students in the UK has been created at Nottingham Trent University.

Emma Rixon, principal lecturer in forensic science, outside the new facility

Forensic science students will use the building – which can be configured to look like a typical house, bar or shop – as part of their practical training.

Housed inside former two-storey student accommodation on the university’s Clifton Campus, it will help to ensure that students are as prepared as possible for work in a variety of forensic and policing roles.

The facility can be used to replicate a broad range of scenarios in homes and businesses, including burglaries, assaults, sexual offences, drugs searches and cyber-crime.

As well as spaces seen in a typical home or business venue – kitchen, lounge, bedrooms, garden, shop counter and bar – it includes a room for blood pattern analysis, whereby students can investigate how blood moves under different conditions.

There is also a back garden, in which students can practice ‘body’ recovery work, and a teaching room.

A CCTV room with access to 26 cameras – including face-tracking technology - is used to monitor and assess students as they make their way through the facility looking for clues and collecting evidence.

Students assume the role of crime scene examiners and are trained by university experts to develop investigation, collection and analysis techniques.

Forensic science students are trained to identify evidence such as fibres, footwear marks, DNA evidence and digital evidence from mobile devices and laptops.

As well as students, the facility will be utilised for training purposes by other external forensic and law enforcement agencies.

The majority of students – based in the university’s School of Science and Technology – go into forensic, policing or research roles.

The development of practical skills is a key theme of the forensic science courses and the university’s facilities support the 'crime scene to court' approach to forensic science. The new facility was also instrumental in the BSc course gaining re-accreditation by the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, a quality mark for all Forensic degrees earlier this month.

“I am very excited by this new facility and what it can offer us in terms of teaching our students and being used as a training centre for police and other forensic providers,” said Ms Emma Rixon, principal lecturer in forensic science at Nottingham Trent University.

She said: “I am especially thrilled by the new blood laboratory, as this offers us potential to carry out research and develop further teaching in this area. Being able to configure the facility into a bar or shop is very important as there can be particular forensic challenges with business venues which you perhaps wouldn’t get with domestic ones.

“The improved CCTV is also fantastic and we can’t wait to put it into use.”

The new facility replaces the smaller crime scene house on the campus.

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About Nottingham Trent University
- Nottingham Trent University was named University of the Year 2017 at the Times Higher Education Awards and Modern University of the Year in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018. The award recognises NTU for its strong student satisfaction, quality of teaching, overall student experience and engagement with employers.
- Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been awarded the highest, gold, rating in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework for its outstanding teaching and learning.
- NTU is one of the largest UK universities with nearly 28,000 students and more than 3,500 staff across four campuses, contributing £496m to the UK economy every year. It is one of the most environmentally-friendly universities, containing some of the country’s most inspiring and efficient award-winning buildings.
- The University is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable Nottingham Trent to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is the sixth biggest recruiter of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the country and 95.6% of its graduates go on to employment or further education within six months of leaving.
- NTU is home to world-class research, winning The Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015 - the highest national honour for a UK university. It recognised the University’s pioneering projects to improve weapons and explosives detection in luggage, enable safer production of powdered infant formula and combat food fraud.
- With an international student population of approximately 2,600 from around 100 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook.