Retired law enforcement officer serves as consultant for 'CSI'
A silence falls over the room as the officer walks slowly around, his eyes trained on the floor as he shines a blue light in front of him. He stops as a spot is revealed. It is invisible to the human eye without the light’s assistance.
It is the proof he needs to convict the murder suspect.
Many people have seen dramatic scenes like this while safely at home, snuggled into their couch as they watch crime shows unfold on television. For retired law enforcement officer Richard J. Warrington, of Topeka, scenes like this are just another part of his life.
Most crime shows use retired officers as consultants during filming. They advise prop masters, writers and technical producers.
Using knowledge from his time as a member of the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department, Warrington said he has worked as a consultant with “Detroit 187,” “Bones,” “CSI: Miami,” “Law and Order: SVU” and “CSI: Las Vegas.” He has worked the most with “CSI: Las Vegas.”
"They're trying to make things as realistic as they can," he said, "that's where I come in."
Warrington spent his teenage years in Topeka, attending Washburn Rural High School. After training at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, he started his career in law enforcement in August 1971. He was promoted to sergeant not long after he began working at the Shawnee County Jail, and he was asked to organize the department’s crime scene unit in 1978. From 1979 until 1996, he served as the lead crime officer in the Capital Area Major Case Squad. He retired from law enforcement in 1996 but continues to have an active role in a variety of ways.
Though Warrington started out on the enforcement end of law enforcement, he soon realized he had an interest in forensic science.
Warrington said he “didn’t even know how to use a 35 mm camera.” He said he was given a roll of film, a camera and a lesson.
“I didn’t know how to do any fingerprinting or anything like that,” Warrington said. “I worked with a federal investigation, and the guy doing fingerprinting there got me started on that.”
Warrington’s interest in forensic science continued, and he learned all he could from other officers he encountered. He grew from student to teacher and began helping other officers around the country learn how to process crime scenes more efficiently with his Gizmos and Gadgets course.
Intended to help task forces of all sizes, Warrington developed a website and a series of classes, including a class on lifting latent fingerprints from such unusual surfaces as feathers and paper towels.
As a consultant on “CSI: Las Vegas,” Warrington corrects the actors and production staff when a procedure isn’t carried out correctly. Because of his familiarity with the newest forensic technology, he also introduces the writers of the show to new techniques, such as the ones he teaches in his Gizmos and Gadgets course.
In the episode "Crow's Feet" of “CSI: Las Vegas,” the case was solved because of the technique Warrington showed writers, allowing the characters to lift a fingerprint off a feather left at the crime scene.
Warrington said he teaches classes at international conferences to people from all over the world.
“I’ve done classes for the FBI and Secret Service,” he said.
Warrington is known internationally for developing the portable Blue Light Special. This light allows crime investigators to see where bodily fluids or latent fingerprints are in a crime scene, even when the spots normally would be invisible to the eye. Though blue lights have been used for years, Warrington’s portable version made it possible to process crime scenes on site rather than risk missing key elements when evidence is gathered to take to the laboratory.
Since their creation in 1994, portable Blue Light Specials have been used around the world for real crime scenes and frequently are used in television shows like “CSI.”
Warrington has published articles in “Law Enforcement Technology Magazine," “Journal of Forensic Identification” and “Evidence Technology.” He wrote and published “Death Scene Check List Manual,” a book to give officers a checklist of how to properly process a crime scene.
He serves on the board of directors of the International Crime Scene Investigators Association, is a member of the Association of Crime Scene Reconstruction and is on the board of directors for the Kansas Division of the International Association of Identification.
Warrington works with the Lynn Peavey Co. as a crime scene consultant in research and development. He continues to travel the country teaching his Gizmos and Gadgets course.
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