Graduation Tales: Rachel’s efforts prepare her for dream career as a detective

Rachel Drennan has just gained first class honours in her Criminology and Criminal Justice degree 

It’s Rachel Drennan’s ambition to be a detective investigating major crimes, and she’s certainly put the foundations in place to achieve her dream.

The 24-year-old, from Cork in the Republic of Ireland, has just gained first class honours in her Criminology and Criminal Justice degree from the University of South Wales (USW), during which she played a key part in establishing a partnership which reviews cold case missing persons and murder investigations.

At the same time, she has been learning some of the key skills involved in policing by volunteering as a Special Constable with South Wales Police, supporting the regular force in Pontypridd.

After moving from Cork to South Wales in her late teens, Rachel secured a place in the BSc Hons degree course at USW and at the beginning of second year became involved in the USW Cold Case Unit, which reviews and collates both new and existing evidence which could help progress unsolved cases, some of them going back decades.

Working under the guidance of specialists at USW, Rachel then became involved in a venture which has seen ‘cold case’ experts working in close collaboration with students.

“In November 2019 Locate International began collaboration with USW. Locate is a community interest company dedicated to helping families of unsolved missing person cases, find their loved ones,” Rachel said.

“It works by bringing together volunteers and specialists from different disciplines to investigate and review cases to ensure that all that can reasonably be done, has and is being done.

“I was involved from the start, when myself and another student developed Locate’s processes and terms of references for families, figured out how we were going to run the cases between the partners involved, and decided on how to bring in professionals.

“It started with just a really small team, mentored by USW staff Dr Cheryl Allsop, who is a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice and is also the Cold Case Unit director. Ian McKim, Academic Manager for Criminology, has also played a vital role in the planning and organisation of the teams. We work closely with a number of other professionals from Locate, including ex-DCIs who help to mentor the students involved.”

As with the majority of USW courses, the experience wasn’t just theoretical, Rachel has been able to get some hard-hitting real-life experience.

“We did one cold case review which finished at the end of last year, have communicated with the investigating police force, and are awaiting the outcome of that” she said.

“It was the case of Damien Nettles, a 16-year-old who disappeared from the Isle of Wight in 1996. We did the case review on it, leading the team, developing tasks, working on how to compile all the documents.

“As we’ve worked on that case, Locate has gone from strength to strength, and we’re now working with international organisations, including missing child service Amber Alert Europe – which assists in saving missing children - as well as with police trainees in Germany and universities in Australia.”

The Locate International experience has been a massive help to Rachel as she works towards her career goal.

“My dream career is working as a detective in major crime, so this experience has helped me massively because we follow the exact same process as a major crime team would in investigations - such as murder, rape, and missing persons - with actions logs, decision logs, justifying every decision we make,” she said.

“And if we find something relevant, we could find ourselves in court, same as anybody else, any police officer investigating it. Just because we’re a uni team, doesn’t mean that we won’t find something.

“It’s helped massively with understanding that process, and also making contacts and getting to know people in the field.”

Having seen first-hand one piece of the career she’s hoping to follow, Rachel has also been experiencing the other side of policing, volunteering on the front line for South Wales Police.

“I joined the Specials because I wanted a taste of the police before applying for a full-time job, which I’ve done for just under two years now. It’s really good and I really enjoy it,” she said.

“It’s challenging because it’s front-line policing, its exactly the same role as any PC, same equipment, same uniform, only it’s voluntary.

“But people don’t see you any differently, they don’t know that I’m a special, so when I go to calls, anything from domestics to anti-social behaviour, it can be challenging.

“But what you learn from doing this you can’t learn anywhere else and I’m hoping it will help me get a place in the police so I can work towards the career I’ve always wanted to pursue.”