Have you ever had a discussion with someone you passionately disagree with?

Have they ever told you, if you show me the evidence, then maybe I'll agree with you.

I know I've had conversations in the past where I've... Then maybe I'll agree with you.

I know I've had conversations in the past where I've felt I've given more than enough evidence to support my point. And yet the other party still disagreed with me.

It's easy in those moments to feel like the other person is just being

stubborn, it's just simply refusing to see the truth, maybe being

intellectually dishonest. And maybe there are times that other person is just willfully refusing to believe the truth, but can I suggest it may be more a matter of how we are communicating the evidence.

Let's dig into this issue together.

I'm Jimmy Wallace and this is the incarnate investigation. The One of the basic skills of police officer needs is the ability to conduct thorough searches.

A thorough search will help an officer locate a hidden weapon on an armed suspect, potentially keep that suspect from using it to hurt the officer. A thorough search might help an officer locate evidence in a vehicle or in a residence,

the fundamentals of searching are taught at the academy level before the police officer ever even hits the streets.

However, as a field training officer I've had plenty of trainees who had difficulty

conducting thorough searches once they hit patrol, even though they've received plenty of training in

that area. Some trainees do have a hard time just locating particular items like

finding the weapon on a suspect.

But much more common is to see trainees have issues

even recognizing evidence when they see it.

And this is in part due to the very nature of evidence itself.

Evidence and criminal activity can come in many shapes and sizes.

Anything could potentially be evidence.

For example, a burnt piece of foil might indicate heroin use.

heroin users will put their narcotic on top of the foil and will heat it up in order to ingest it.

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