Bill Thomas, born and raised in Plant City, and a graduate of Marshall High School, spent a year in the Vietnam War serving as a U.S. Army combat military policeman. After rotating out of Vietnam, he enlisted and served in policing. After years of commanding military forensic labs around the world, Thomas retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4—the equivalent of a major.
In 2002, Sheriff Grady Judd called Bill Thomas. Judd offered Thomas the position of Identification Administrator for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. This role heads PCSO’s forensics. During his tenure, Thomas led the growth of the division from five to 14 staff. He served in the position for 21 years and recently retired in May.
For “crimes against persons” like homicide and robbery—which could also easily turn into homicide, Thomas, as the leader of forensics in Polk County, pursued crimes with a sense of urgency. “My job was to get him or her off the street as fast as we could. If we catch someone today rather than two weeks from now, we have stopped some crimes. I can’t say how many, but I can assure you we have stopped some crimes.”
Early on, Thomas expanded the evidence databases for Polk County, and added new data points. Notably, PCSO had the first database in the state that included palm prints. “Ninety-five percent of the hand is the palm,” Thomas commented. Perceptive thinking like this made PCSO forensics even more effective. “I hear it around here all the time that you don’t want to go to Polk County to commit a crime, because you are going to get caught,” Thomas said.
In mid-August, Thomas will offer a no-cost, forensic science class for high school students who are freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.
One of his previous students, Lloycoia Barnum, a 2022 Strawberry Crest High School graduate, discussed why she joined the class. “I used to watch the television shows like Law and Order, so I was really interested, but I didn’t know what it was called until my mom told me about the class.”
Among other things, students in the class learn how to identify different types of fingerprints and analyze them, how to take tire impressions, and how different people see different crimes. To add to their learning, the class takes field trips. These can be to crime labs like the Identification Section at the PCSO, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in Tampa, and the Forensic Science Section in Pinellas County. Through these experiences, the students, “….get to see wide variety of how the job is done in the different locations, use different equipment, and different technology,” Thomas said. “And they get a chance to talk with these individuals who are currently doing the job to get their perspective.”
In addition to visiting crime labs, the students have the chance to go to forensic science conferences, such as the National Youth Forensic Science Forum, with sessions led by professionals who work in the crime-scene field. “I remember one lecture was about the Boston Marathon bombings,” Barnum said. “The speaker was the FBI agent who worked on it. He talked about the different steps they took to solve the case, and what clues they used to put everything together.”
“I learned how to take time to slowly process things,” Barnum said about the class. “Because if you don’t take your time to do certain things like the fingerprints and analyze them, you can easily mess up. Another thing she learned was, “….not to second guess myself, either, because I had a problem with that. But after taking the class, I got rid of that issue.”
Barnum is a junior at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. She is majoring in psychology with a concentration in forensic psychology and minor in clinical psychology. “I got an offer from the school for a full scholarship based on the forensic stuff I was doing,” she said. “I was first interested in the forensic education thing because I wanted to help people. But then when I realized I could actually help people, both mentally and while solving crimes, I thought ‘Okay, this is actually what I wanted to do.’ So, that is what led me to this path.” Her trajectory is to graduate in 2026 with a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree, then go on to obtain a license to counsel, and work on Ph.D. “I want to try to become a forensic psychiatrist,” she concluded.
“Her ability to do what she has done is great,” said Thomas about his former student. “I think about myself. When I went to college to be a music teacher, I had no clue about forensic science. I had never even heard of it. But I think it is important that we introduce these things to the young folks, so they can look at different career fields. You hear about fingerprints, and footprints, and tire tracks, and facial recognition. What a lot of people don’t understand is, there is a forensic science application to pretty much everything you do. You have forensic accountants. You have forensic engineers. That isn’t what you hear a lot about.”
“I teach the class because I think about how I just happened to be fortunate enough to have a couple of individuals that saw something in me I didn’t see in myself when it came to the forensic science program,” Thomas said. “And in a lot of ways I feel like I was lucky—I was blessed—but I was lucky that those individuals were there. Because if it had not been for them, I would have not gone in that direction. And it turned out to be where I should have been. So, I wanted to introduce the kids here to the forensic sciences because the only way they can really assess what they want to do is to be exposed to these things. You can’t believe you want to go in a certain direction, or do a certain thing if you haven’t been exposed to it. That is not to say that every kid that is exposed to it is going to want to be a forensic scientist, but what it will do is it teach them about paying attention to detail—which is an essential element when it comes to being successful.”
Previous classes have traveled to a beach to learn to take tire track impressions. The students also have gone to the PCSO where forensic scientists showed them the mechanics of fingerprinting, taking shoe prints, and how to use a criminal database. “It is actually a very fun class,” Barnum added. “I was never bored.”
In addition to solving crimes and helping keep communities safe, forensics has other benefits. “You can earn a decent salary,” Thomas remarked. “At the end of the day, while you want to do something you want to do, you want to do something that will allow you to live a more than adequate lifestyle.” For example, PCSO sends new forensic staff to a five month course—the Forensic Science Latent Print Academy. If staff sign a four-year committment, PCSO covers the $27,500 tuition, and additional room and board. Upon completion, the starting salary is at least $60,000.
Classes will be on Mondays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. beginning August 19, 2024. The 14-week session will be held at the Bing Rooming House Museum, near downtown Plant City and class size is limited. The online application can be found at https://www.improvementleague.com.