In a day filled with crime scenes and arrest demonstrations, Patricia Cox’s Forensics class traveled to Conroe to visit the Conroe Police Department. After making it to the department, the group was welcomed by two of the department’s detectives.

The students were given a tour of the police offices and storage units and then checked out the evidence lockers to see where things like phones, guns, and ammunition were stored.

“It was really cool to get an inside look in the life of a police officer,” senior OT Garcia said. “It was different than I thought it would be; their life seems so exciting on television, but they live a normal life.”

The students also toured a refrigerated evidence area and an auto shop that processes vehicles involved in crimes.

“It was cool that they showed us the auto shop,” senior Clay Lacour said. “It was even cooler when they told us a lot of the things that they do when they get the cars and what they do with them after a case is solved.”

Later the staff showed the students how to dust for fingerprints, some different types of evidence they have stored, and demonstrated using a black like in the bathrooms.

“It was a lot of fun,” junior Emily Weathers said. “It made me realize that bathrooms are actually really nasty.”

Students also toured the crime scene bus, which is a mobile investigative unit.

“It was a really neat experience,” senior Colton Carr said. “It was neat when I got to dust for fingerprints; it felt like a real-life investigation.”

Before the tour ended, the detectives showed the students the cop cars and told them a little information on the cop cars. They also did a mock arrest so that students could see the process.

“It was weird seeing what it was like to get arrested,” senior Roy Kirkendall said. “It made me realize that I don’t ever want to see what happens if I go to jail; I tried to fight the officer, but he kept a death grip on me.”