Chuck MacLean Guest Lectures at University of Tennessee’s National Forensic Academy

Chuck MacLean, assistant professor of criminal justice, spent part of February 2019 on location in Oak Ridge, Tenn., as a guest instructor for the University of Tennessee’s National Forensic Academy. The academy trains top law enforcement officers from across the United States in a 10-week residential program focusing on forensic practice and courtroom testimony. MacLean taught the academy’s two-day module on courtroom testimony, as he does four times each year. Academy students are experienced officers from the Tennessee, Georgia, and Kansas bureaus of investigation, the Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Seattle Police Department, and other city, county, state and federal agencies. Teaching in a combined lecture/exercise format, MacLean focused his lectures on obligations common to all witnesses and obligations particular to law enforcement officers. Throughout the exercises, MacLean had the students improve their confidence and competence by persuasively capturing the key points of their testimony in both direct- and cross-examination drills.