Investigating the findings of a Police workshop on the identification of skeletal material

Abstract

Abstract Emergency services professionals can encounter human remains on a frequent basis, therefore an ability to locate and recognize skeletal elements would be highly beneficial. While recognizing human bone has a clear utility to those involved in searching for remains, even for first responders who do not aid in the identification and analysis of remains, a basic knowledge of skeletal anatomy—and the ability to differentiate between human and animal bones—may assist both within the escalation process, and in understanding the scene. With this in mind, a workshop was commissioned by South Yorkshire Police in order to provide training on how to identify human bone in the field and differentiate between human and non-human bone. In total, 37 participants completed the workshop, with 100% completing a survey on the usefulness of the workshop regarding their own abilities before and after. Mann–Whitney U tests were run to determine differences in ability before and after the workshop to gauge whether participants noticed any improvement within their abilities. The testing showed that on average participants perceived an increase in their abilities after completing the workshop. Interestingly, when the test was broken into specific groups—Recovery Professionals and Identification Professionals—a difference in abilities both before and after the workshop was noted between groupings, suggesting that experience at crime scenes may aid in education. The results of this workshop show that training to not just first responders, but also to more senior personnel, was highly useful in widening their knowledge of skeletal material, which will help with any future encounters in the field.