Officers from across the state attended the Montana Law Enforcement Academy this week for a hands-on detective boot camp to learn how to follow the evidence and, ultimately, find the truth.(Learn more in the video below) Montana law enforcement officers sharpen investigative skills at Detective Boot CampThe concept of this detective boot camp class is to be able to provide students with a broad scope of different evidence, methods, and technology for how to locate different items of evidence, document them, and to collect them, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Bureau Chief Derek Mahlum said.The course hosted by the Montana Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation is called Follow the Evidence, Find the Truth " and hosted around 30 students.It's designed for both patrol officers and new or seasoned detectives, with a focus on younger officers or those from more rural agencies.Throughout the training, officers take part in lectures and practical exercises like blood spatter analysis and shooting reconstruction. I have not had a lot of opportunities to investigate more major crimes, especially things like shootings, blood-lighting incidents that we have been working on the past two days, so it is an opportunity to investigate them in a simulated environment instead of learning it hands-on at a crime scene, a new detective with the Belgrade Police Department, Bryan Phipps, said.The goal is to give investigators real-world tools they can take back to their agencies from working a case to evaluating evidence and building an investigation.We have seen a shift in law enforcement, and I am really excited for a class like this because it brings all parts of agencies- small, middle, and large all learn together, shoulder to shoulder, Mahlum added. The course also provides an opportunity for officers with different levels of experience to learn from one another and from DCI investigators.To scratch the surface in hopes that we can plant the seed, water, and allow them to go pursue that additional training on the other side, Mahlum said.The course is currently pending approval for 40 hours of POST training credit. That credit would count toward the professional training requirements for Montana law enforcement officers. ...read more read less