Lakhasly

UNABLE to make an arrest in the case of the smashed statues of saints in Roman
Catholic churches in Brooklyn, New York police detectives have consulted with a fellow
who was once one of their own, the psychological profiler Raymond M. Pierce, and if you
think Mr. Pierce is going to speak about an ongoing investigation, you are a person of
extraordinary naivete.
If, however, you want to get some idea of what a psychological profiler does, Mr. Pierce,
founder of the Police Department's Criminal Assessment and Profiling Unit and one of a
handful of people trained in profiling by the F.B.I., will be glad to give you an idea.
''You look at the overview of the forensic and behavioral information present at the
crime scene to develop a list of the characteristics of the offender as we would have if we
had a friend of the offender giving a basic description,'' Mr. Pierce says, in the somewhat
stiff language he sometimes uses with people who have never been on the job. His
classes at the Police Academy -- where he makes politically incorrect jokes about the
400-pound murder victim found ''beached'' in her apartment, or reveals that the Son of
Sam killer, David Berkowitz, returned to his crime scenes for sexual satisfaction -- are
far more entertaining.
Let's zoom in on an old case, that of the Zodiac killer, who roamed the city streets at
night in 1996, shooting and stabbing five people, killing three. In Mr. Pierce's profile,
which turned out to be accurate, the killer was described as a man in his 20's who had
either no job or a menial one and lived with his mother or another older woman.
How could Mr. Pierce know that the killer would be living with his mother?
''Or an older female relative,'' Mr. Pierce says, being in the detail business. ''Because of
his having a menial job at best. Females tend to put up with nonproductive children
more than males. A male is more likely to tell somebody to get a job.''
There are police detectives who fit the profile of having watched too many police shows
on television, who make John Gotti their fashion god, and who, after retirement, if they
are successful, set up large private investigation firms in Midtown and write books about
their exploits.
Then there is Mr. Pierce, 51 and retired from the Police Department for two years, who
runs a one-man investigations firm, RMP International, from a small room in his house
in north Yonkers and spends half of his time consulting with police officers all over the
country for free.