By Lisa Price

As part of the process for choosing a jury for a trial, questions are asked. Prosecutors and defense attorneys want to know if people have been victims of crime, or if they know any of the people involved in the case, for example.

I sat in on part of a jury selection process recently. One of the questions asked of the group was, “Are you more likely to believe the testimony of a police officer as more credible than the testimony of a civilian?” I would estimate that about 90 percent of the approximately 140 people raised their hands.

It took me back to a learning experience in high school, through a teacher named Charles Sacavage. Sacavage, now retired and living on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, is playing Theodore Roosevelt at the Deane Center’s Coolidge Theatre, Wellsboro. He’s been quoted as saying that a good teacher needs to be a good entertainer.

He certainly filled that role as a teacher. When the school added a criminal justice class, taught by Sacavage, students vied to add that class to their schedule.

On that particular day, Sacavage enlisted a friend to help him in the exercise; the students were totally unaware of the plan. As Sacavage stood up front, teaching the class lesson, his friend burst into the room and shoved him up against the wall, then just as quickly, spun and left the room.

After the buzz lessened, Sacavage asked the students to take out a piece of paper and write down what they remembered about the incident. He asked them to include information about the assailant — his estimated age and size, for example. He also asked them for details about what the person was wearing.

The majority of the responses were way off base. Most estimated the height of the assailant from 2 to 4 inches higher than it was, and most said he was in his 20s. The assailant was in his 40s and about 6 feet tall.

The greatest discrepancies came in what the students remembered about the person’s clothing. He wore a baseball cap, but was there any emblem on it? Was he wearing sneakers or shoes? What color was his shirt? Was his hair long or short? When the students finished the exercise, Sacavage had the person return and stand in front of the class.

Here are some of the details the students missed — it was a black hat with a single white M on it and he was wearing tan boots with laces. Nearly all got the color of the shirt correctly but left out the fact that it had a huge tear all along one side. They’d had a wide variety of answers as to whether the assailant’s hair was curly or straight or what color it was; it was dark brown and straight.

The lesson to be learned that day was about the credibility of recollections. Although a handful of students were spot-on in their observations about the person, the majority were not. On that day, students learned that they had a long way to go before their powers of observation and recall became automatic.

The only way that would happen is through training. When you consider the daunting amount of training local, county or state law enforcement officials have undergone, as well as the daily application of that training as they do their jobs, it makes sense that those people’s testimony would be more accurate, and more believable.

Count me as siding with those 90 percent of potential jurors who raised their hands. And put me down as proud that at least in Schuylkill County, the majority of people still put their trust in the men in blue.