Hansen serves 25 years in Washington law enforcement

    Washington Police Investigator Lyle Hansen is celebrating his 25th anniversary as a full-time officer. Hansen began his career in law enforcement in 1983 as a reserve deputy in Washington County. He joined the police department in 1985, and by 1989 had moved to the position of patrol sergeant. In 1991, he became the investigator, a position he has held ever since.

    Hansen comes from a family of law enforcement officers. His father was a state trooper for 38 years and he has a younger brother who is also a state trooper.  He said that law enforcement is something he grew up with and that his familial connections to it affected his decision to become a police officer.

    As an investigator, Hansen spends much of his time gathering information from interviews, which he said is usually his best source of information. Hansen said that the biggest problem he has when he interviews a witness is that witnesses often make assumptions that turn out to be false. Hansen said that if everyone involved in an incident could come together in a room and testify only about what they know and not what they assume to be true, they would come to an agreement about what actually happened. 

    ?People have holes in their knowledge, and they try to fill those holes,? said Hansen. ?Each person?s testimony is like a puzzle piece that we have to put together with the other pieces.?

    Hansen said that the testimony of one single person is never so persuasive to end the investigation. He said that even when a suspect confesses to a crime, that is merely the beginning of the investigation.

    ?Even if they confess, we still check cell phone records and bank records,? said Hansen.

    When Hansen is interviewing someone, he learns a lot about them from their body language and their mannerisms. He said that to become an investigator, he went through special training to read the signals people unknowingly send with their arms or their eyes.

    ?The oldest one in the book is that a person is telling the truth if he looks you in the eye,? said Hansen.

    However, Hansen noted that particular phenomenon has been talked about so much that nowadays nearly every suspect he talks to looks him directly in the eye. Hansen also said that if a person has his arms crossed, that is a sign he will be hesitant to talk. He said that the education he received has given him the skills to relax those people and make them more willing to share information.

For more, see our July 1 print edition.