Concordia Criminal Justice Department hosts mock drug raid

In early October, the Criminal Justice Department hosted a mock search warrant interdiction at the university’s crime scene house, located directly behind the Jonathan dorms on campus. The event was organized by Dr. Daniel Zieg, who teaches Concordia Nebraska’s Special Topics in Criminology course. Dr. Zieg is an adjunct professor and chief deputy county attorney for the Civil Division in Lancaster County.  Adjunct professor of Criminal Justice, Brian Peters also helped plan the event. Members of Concordia’s Law and Justice Club were invited to attend the event to gain insight on real world experiences. 

Two officials - one an investigator and the other a sergeant - from the Lancaster County Interdiction Unit presented for the first hour, giving those in attendance an overview of what they do and see in their line of work. In the second hour, the two officials worked with the Seward County Police Department to present a mock search warrant interdiction raid with student actors at the university’s crime scene house. 

“I’ve never been in a situation like that, and I thought it was very informative,” said junior Faith Riggle. “I liked that they would explain what they were doing and why they were doing it.”  

Riggle also noted that she was intrigued by all the photos shown in the presentation. Photos of evidence found during traffic stops were included in the presentation.  

“You would never expect to see that much weed or money in just one spot,” added Riggle. “Also seeing the different compartments, like spare tires, rental cars and where people hide it is super interesting.” 

Another thing Riggle learned was that even if your major is not specifically criminal justice, you can still become involved and work in the criminal justice system. Riggle found it interesting that one of the presenters was a communications major in college. 

“As a participant or observer, each of the students was able to experience in real-time a mock warrant enabled search and seizure, which led to arrests,” said Dr. Edward Hoffman, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of Online Criminal Justice Program. “By giving the steps and a realistic portrayal of what happens in this type of operation, it lent itself to engage those present who then wanted to ask questions.” 

The Criminal Justice Department plans to continue programs like this in the future. Concordia is one of the few college campuses in Nebraska with a crime scene house. The criminal justice courses at Concordia all strive to use the crime scene house to provide unique, hands-on experiences for students. Social science courses such as counseling are considering using the crime scene house for additional educational experiences, as well. 

Additionally, the Criminal Justice Department has also been working with the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) and the NDCS SORT (SWAT) team to hold more activities on campus as part of their training. In addition, the organizations have been working together to identify what goals they want to accomplish when students are involved in these educational activities. 

“All the faculty involved were very happy with the outcome and student involvement and participation,” said Hoffman. “We also appreciated the officers and deputies’ willingness to be involved in this type of program, to answer the students’ questions and to individually meet with our students at the end of the exercise. We are truly blessed to have faculty such as Professor Zieg and Professor Peters that are willing to share their time and expertise with our students. They did an excellent job!” 

Interested in being involved with criminal justice at Concordia? Learn more here.