Oregon Public Broadcasting

Brandi Zeckman wanted to be an Oregon State Police trooper since she was 10 years old.

She spent 13 1/2 years in the patrol division, and then sought a new challenge — criminal investigations.

About six months ago, the former Pendleton High School softball star became a detective, and at the same time one of the newest members of the Umatilla-Morrow County Major Crimes Team.

Since she joined, the team with 15-20 members has responded to eight calls for assistance, including five homicide investigations in the past 12 weeks, all in Umatilla County. Zeckman, 37, said she never imagined being part of so many criminal investigations in so short a time.

The detective she replaced, Zeckman said, told her the team usually has two or three call-outs a year.

“In about three months, we’re double or triple that,” she said.

Her supervisor, state police Sgt. Tom Spicknall, 45, is an 18-year veteran of the force. He also served on major crimes teams in Lane and Lincoln counties for three years before arriving in Pendleton in 2007.

“As for homicides, this is the busiest I’ve ever been,” Spicknall said. “It’s very unusual.”

These big investigations are the very reason local law enforcement agencies in the mid- through late-1990s created the team. Umatilla County Undersheriff Terry Rowan said the team is a kind of local task force of detectives and crime scene investigators that allows smaller agencies to tackle big crimes.

Under the agreement that created the team, Rowan said, the authority to make a call-out rests with the sheriff’s office, and Rowan is the man who pulls the trigger.

Police departments in Pendleton, Hermiston, Umatilla, Boardman, Milton-Freewater, Pilot Rock, Stanfield and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation are team members, as are the sheriff's offices and district attorneys of Umatilla and Morrow counties and the Oregon State Police.

Before the team formed, Pendleton Police Lt. Bill Caldera said, local agencies relied on state police detectives and its forensic division to work major crimes.

“Several of the agencies didn’t even have detectives,” he said.

Today, Pendleton has three —  James Littlefield, Brandon Gomez and Sgt. Rick  Jackson. The department doesn’t place all three detectives on the team unless the crime occurred inside the city limits, Caldera said.

The full major crimes team doesn’t respond to every call, Rowan said. Circumstances dictate need. A smaller police department that could use a couple of detectives to interview suspects or gather witness statements can get that help, he said.

But as of late, the violent nature of the call-outs have required a full-team response, and that requires someone in charge at a crime scene. As the sergeant in charge of the state police criminal division in Pendleton, Spicknall has worn that hat.

“It can be very chaotic on initial arrival,” Spicknall said. “There’s a bunch of things that occur all at once, and every one of them demands attention right now.”

Determining what to do at a crime scene, he said, is much like triage in a medical emergency.

“You want safety and security first for everyone involved,” he said.

Spicknall said the team uses a checklist to track tasks, from determining who may be hurt, if a suspect is on scene, to who witnessed what happened. He said it's about playing to strengths.

Some investigators are good at interviewing witnesses, others at gathering evidence. And more veteran investigators get the heavier duty, such as questioning suspects. But even new team members have valuable roles to play.

“There’s no, ‘You need to get coffee,’” Spicknall said. “Everyone’s an adult, everyone’s a professional.”

The team has no budget of its own. Each member is paid by its home agency. The police department asking for help must be sensitive to the needs of the department lending its expertise, said Spicknall.

Keeping a city’s primary detective waiting for a big break is a waste of time, money and expertise, he said.

Zeckman said she knows as a new member she isn’t going to interview the suspect. But that’s not what matters.

She said she is gaining valuable experience working on a busy team. And working together so often, she said, has made the team better as well.

The team concept, Zeckman said, is something she and the other members take seriously. This isn’t a place for egos.

“Each one of us is a piece in the puzzle,” she said. And when the pieces come together, crimes get solved.

This story originally appeared in East Oregonian.