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Brittany Nighthawk, a member of the Onondaga Nation from Syracuse, is working alongside Michael Williams, a crime scene analyst at the Sheriff’s Office, located at the Chautauqua County seat in Mayville, N.Y.
Though her service is limited to 50 hours, Ms. Nighthawk, a junior majoring in criminal justice, has actively participated in a wide range of projects. She assisted the District Attorney’s office with technology preparation for a homicide hearing. That assignment involved research into the use of three chemicals to generate latents, or invisible images produced on porous material that can be rendered visible through photographic processing.
“Impressive” was how Mr. Williams rated the quality of latents produced by Ms. Nighthawk.
She also helped maintain two hidden cameras operating in the north end of the county and serve a search warrant on a sex crime. Another assignment was spent overhead, compiling aerial images of an alleged homicide scene. These photographs, taken from different angles and elevations, will establish the topography of the area to assist a jury. Other camera subjects included a Sinclairville tire dump cleanup, a Dunkirk business, a county cleanup site, and jail construction.
Ms. Nighthawk also handled other assignments that may seem relatively mundane, but are no less important than high-profile ones. She tabulated information -- recording case numbers and searching department records -- so the Sheriff’s Office could proceed with destruction of accumulated firearms, and created a paper trail to track all items removed from the Sheriff’s Office evidence room.
CSTEP, commemorating its 20th anniversary in New York State, serves minority students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and math programs. “The focus of our program is minority students, especially Native Americans,” said Barbara Ann Kennedy, CSTEP director. “We try to get them into the field and support them.”
