By Richard Kaufman
On Jan. 31, during an internal ceremony at the Greenwich Police Department, patrol officers Jeff Morris and Aran Santilli were promoted to the rank of detective within the forensics section.
Morris and Santilli have been probationary detectives for the last six months as they have been subjected to various training courses in order to acclimate to their new roles.
Morris’ and Santilli’s duties will involve report writing, photographing and diagraming crime scenes, and collecting, identifying and processing evidence, such as latent fingerprints. In a secondary role, the forensics department will receive evidence from patrol officers, or other detectives handling smaller crime scenes, and any requests they might have.
The forensics department will also send evidence to the crime lab in Meriden, Conn., for additional processing.
Morris, a 10-year veteran of the GPD, also teaches numerous classes for the state of Connecticut, and is the lead instructor for the town of Greenwich’s women’s self defense class.
Morris attended Hamilton Avenue School, Western Middle School and Greenwich High School. He joined the Marine Corps., in 1998, and returned to Greenwich with an eye towards law enforcement in 2002. Protecting and serving the town he grew up in is extra special, he said.
“I think there is a little more passion and pride, seeing that you’re making an impact on a daily basis, if it’s a place where you were born and raised and you still have enough loyalty and pride in the area to stay here,” he said.
Morris said the road to becoming a detective was a long one. He applied three times for a promotion, and said luck and timing worked in his favor in obtaining a forensics position. Officers are eligible to apply for a promotion after three years on the job.
Morris said the pressure and extra responsibility that comes with the rank of detective, especially in forensics work, was attractive to him.
“There really isn’t much gray area,” he said. “You either do [your job] properly and it’s a good thing, or you screw it up and it’s a bad thing.”
Santilli has been with the department for almost six years. Originally from Iowa, she attended the University of Northern Iowa and later Texas Tech, and holds a master’s degree in forensics.
“This is kind of where I wanted to go,” she said of being involved full-time with forensics. “It’s great to finally be here and doing what I wanted to do.”
Santilli first knew she wanted to be involved with forensics during her teen years, but didn’t focus on it until her second year of college.
“I like the puzzles and trying to figure it out,” she said. “I like the unknown and trying to solve it. The curiosity is good.”
Even though Santilli already has a background in forensics, she said the learning never stops. Other policing techniques in other departments remain relatively unchanged, but forensics is constantly evolving.
“[My background] only gives me a good, basic understanding. There’s so much more to it and so much more involvement. I think the hands-on training definitely gets you more prepared for what you’re doing.”
Santilli said that with the job comes big responsibilities and big rewards, and both she and Morris have been well-groomed and trained over the past six months.
“It’s a big responsibility because some of these cases depend on the forensics,” she said. “We try our best and are slow at doing everything right, and we give every good attempt at doing the best we can to process each item that we get in here and hope that we will get something that’s going to be beneficial to the case.”
