Police work not like on TV, chief says
April 07, 2003
McDevitt shares details of investigations, evidence use
BY PHIL ROCKROHR
Times Staff Writer
LANSING – Criminal investigations are not magic and they are not like the ones people see on television, Police Chief Dan McDevitt told the Citizen Police Academy last week. “They are plodding, methodical, shoe-leather detective work,” said McDevitt, a 29-year veteran of policing. “That’s what solves cases. Sometimes investigations last a long time and sometimes crimes are never solved. Every crime is not solvable. Most are, but not all.”
McDevitt outlined different types of investigations and evidence and used resolved cases to illustrate the methods and sources. He said police search just as hard to exclude as include people as suspects. “No honorable, honest policeman wants to put the wrong person in jail,” McDevitt said. Despite television portrayals to the contrary, everybody – even twins – has different fingerprints and different DNA, he said.
McDevitt outlined how a “proactive” investigation led to the arrest of child molester Phillip K. Marshall, who is still in prison as a result of an investigation McDevitt headed for the Illinois State Police. In proactive cases, police initiate investigations to see if crimes are being committed, he said. Many of those include undercover work, McDevitt said.
Marshall was first confronted with molestation accusations in a program he started for at-risk youths in Texas more than 12 years ago, but state officials chose not to prosecute the charges, McDevitt said. “This was one of those get-out-of-town-by-sundown-type things,” he said. “He was not prosecuted because of a lack of victim cooperation and community support. He was pretty well liked.”
Marshall decided to relocate to Illinois, where he started self-defense training classes professing to teach kids how to protect themselves from child molesters, McDevitt said.
“All the while he was looking for victims,” he said.
Marshall told parents he was a martial arts expert, computer expert, former Vietnam War prisoner and Medal of Honor recipient, McDevitt said. When a west suburban detective’s son asked his dad if he could join Marshall’s program, the cop checked Marshall’s background, McDevitt said. The state police’s child molestation unit found no record of Marshall’s military background and launched an investigation that led to his arrest, McDevitt said.
Marshall was so popular that some parents refused to cooperate in the investigation, but he was eventually convicted, McDevitt said. “The point is that we did not get a call to investigate this guy for a crime,” he said. “We got a call that something was not right, so we investigated.”