One of Mt. Juliet’s Finest graduated today from the prestigious University of Tennessee’s National Forensic Academy (NFA). Officer Brian Cruz successfully completed the intensive 10-week, in-residence training program, which is designed to meet the needs of law enforcement agencies in evidence identification, collection, and preservation. Cruz, along with other law enforcement professionals from across the United States, graduated from NFA Session 61 in a ceremony held today in Knoxville.
Around 60 percent of Cruz’s 400 hours of training was hands-on, field exercises where he studied actual human remains and analyzed bloodstain patterns at mock crime scenes. In mock crime scenes, he used new, innovated forensic knowledge and tools to gather, analyze, document, and process evidence. To complete the justice process, he received additional training in presentation and courtroom testimony, so he can accurately and effectively explain the documented evidence. Cruz also studied at UT’s Anthropological Research Facility or “Body Farm.” He spent a week at there where he learned to document post-mortem changes to human remains and studied skeletal biology.
The NFA is a program of UT’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center, an agency of UT’s Institute for Public Service. It is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
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