One evening last week my husband and I engaged in what I think of as an old-people’s activity – we went to hear a talk at the library. Since the average age of the participants was about half-past expired, I felt justified in my stereotyping.

The discussion was titled “CSI: Chester County” and was presented by a detective from the county law enforcement organization. In two hours he barely got through half of his slides, and promised to schedule another session as we were getting booted out of the building by a martinet librarian.

What I Learned:
1. Of the 18 detectives on the Chester County force, only 1 is female. While the detective professed this number to be “unacceptable”, he did not have an understanding of why more women don’t apply to the detective unit.
2. He would stake his career and reputation on O.J. being guilty.
3. In 1994 there were essentially no crime shows like CSI or Law & Order on US TV.
4. Fingerprints are more a reliable identifier than DNA. (This from a fingerprint analysis specialist.)
5. Pictures of actual bloody dead bodies makes an audience of old people gasp.
6. Detective McGinnis loves his work. While he claims that he would be just as happy if there was no need for his skills and he could be a bartender, I don’t believe him. He needs those crimes to keep piling up.