We recently connected with Dr. Ken Lang and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Ken, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
The legacy I hope to leave behind is one in which my children, grandchildren, and college students look back at my life and see how my pursuit to change the criminal justice system to be a more just and equitable system made a positive impact in many lives.
In 2023, I lost my father and my father-in-law, which caused me to pause and reflect on my life. my achievements, and what people would say at my funeral. As an average high school student, I never foresaw myself working one day as a scholar, researcher, or legal analyst on television. I only imagined myself as an average police officer completing a career and enjoying a simple retirement. But, having the doors of opportunity open for me in ways I would have never imagined, I am humbled by the initiatives I’ve been able to participate in and help to strive towards making a better justice system in America.
I hope that people will remember me as a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who was passionate about criminal investigations, and who advocated against the injustices of the world.
Dr. Ken, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
When I was a high school student I had set my sights on law enforcement as a career. I wasn’t the best of students and had a guidance counselor who told me I wasn’t college material, should join the military, become a grunt, and go die for my country. But I was passionate about becoming a police officer and serving in that capacity.
After submitting several applications and not being selected, I lost hope for a career in policing. Then, in 1988, a high school friend of mine, who also shared a passion for a career in law enforcement, was raped and murdered. In watching her investigation unfold and feeling the heartbreak from the loss of her life, a fire was ignited in me to pursue a career in policing. I began applying to more agencies and in just a few months was selected to be the next police officer for the small waterway town of Havre de Grace, Maryland.
Within a week of being hired, I was off to Annapolis, Maryland where I resided for the next six months as I completed the required police training at the Anne Arundel County Police Academy. The training was arduous, but by June of 1989, I completed the requirements and graduated from the academy. After returning to Havre de Grace, Maryland my first act as a police officer was to help a mother who delivered her third child in the parking lot of a convenience store.
While serving with the Havre de Grace Police Department I resided in an apartment complex in Baltimore County, Maryland. It so happened that I lived a floor below a homicide detective for the Baltimore County Police and we soon made the police connection and shared about our career pathways. Before long, he sensed that I was a decenr=t officer and encouraged me to apply for the BCoPD where the pay and benefits were more substantial than what I was experiencing in Havre de Grace. I decided to apply and never turned back.
Within the year I was hired by the agency and served as the class president in the 86th Recruit Class. After graduating from my second police academy (yes, I did it twice), I was assigned to the patrol division at the North Point Precinct.
Remembering how Therese’s life was snuffed out from her, my ambition to work as a homicide detective grew, and I set my sights on that goal. Within a few years, I was selected to work in the Investigative Services Unit, the precinct-level detective squad, where I investigated crimes that did not have a specialized unit at headquarters. After several years of cutting my teeth as a detective, I applied to work in the Crimes Against Person section at headquarters and was selected.
My first assignment started me off in the Sex Crimes Unit. Here I learned the art of skillful interviewing and interrogating. Before long, I attracted the attention of supervisors in the Robbery Unit who invited me to transfer over to the unit. This move proved crucial as I learned about shooting scenes from armed robbery investigations where victims were shot, but did not succumb to their wounds. In time, a sergeant in the Homicide Unit cornered me and asked if I would consider working death investigations. Seeing the opportunity to expand myself and reach the goal I had set out to achieve, I accepted the offer and began investigating murders and questionable deaths in the early 2000s.
By this juncture of my career, I had already begun working as an adjunct instructor at the BCoPD police academy, teaching basic and advanced investigative courses to recruits and seasoned officers. In teaching, I had found a new passion and this mediocre high school student enrolled in college and completed a Bachelor’s and Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice Administration from Columbia Southern University.
While investigating violent crimes and earning my degrees, I not only worked as an adjunct instructor but also served as a bugler in the honor guard, a computer voice stress analyst seeking deception in examinations, a member of the Dignitary Witness Protection Team, and a forensic sketch artist completing over 100 composites of suspects. While completing all these tasks, I was able to finish my master’s degree, earning a 4.0 GPA. Not bad for someone who wasn’t “college material” and should become a grunt and die for their country.
When serving in the Homicide Unit, there was one case that came to pave the way for my future. The murder of Wesley Person in December of 2005 attracted the attention of producers from the infamous Forensic Files television show in early 2008. When they learned how the investigation was saturated with every genre of forensic evidence that existed at the time, they sought the necessary approval from the police department and were soon filming the “Dollars and Sense” episode. It was the first instance that the BCoPD ever allowed a television production crew to work with any of its sworn members.
By 2013, I had completed my master’s degree and was eligible to retire from law enforcement. Honestly, I was ready to retire from law enforcement. That’s when the University of Valley Forge, a small private Christian university approached me about building a criminal justice program on campus. With years of experience working as an adjunct at the police academy, I jumped on the opportunity and built the curriculum on paper. They invited me to be the first criminal justice professor in the program by August 2014. Burned out from years of investigating violent crimes I accepted the offer.
I remained at the University of Valley Forge until 2016, when I had another offer come my way to build out a forensics program at Glenville State College. It was during this season of life that two other television shows would come along and recreate the Wesley Murder investigation: Murder Decoded and Payback. It was also these connections that led to the Law & Crime Trial Network finding me and inviting me to appear on their network as a legal analyst/commentator as they covered live court proceedings. It was also during this time in my life that I completed my Ph.D. at Walden University.
Today, I serve as an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Milligan University and continue to appear on the Law & Crime Trial Network. I complete research in areas about criminal investigations, forensic composites and sketches, and restorative justice processes. Moreover, I’ve recently started my own expert witness business, analyzing police investigations, police practices and procedures, or cases involving forensic sketches, for a variety of clients.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Despite what others may think about you, do not let their opinions determine your path.
It’s funny. When I share my story about the guidance counselor who did not think I was college material, I look back and laugh at how I had let their opinion become a barrier. However, when I completed the second police academy, I learned at graduation that many of the classes I had completed in the police academy allowed me to earn 33 college credits.
That gave me pause.
I was college material!
Seeing that I was able to complete the rigor of academic work required in a college setting, allowed me to gain a confidence I did not have before and to step out in boldness when the opportunity to further my education came my way. There was a great deal of sacrifice in completing my degrees. There were many hours of reading, writing, and articulating my work. But in the end, I prevailed.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Honesty, diligence, and persistence.
Now that I am working as an associate professor and an expert witness much of the feedback that I receive centers on the quality of work that I submit, how it provides a fair assessment, and goes beyond the expectations of the client or student.
When generating my work product, I have found that putting my best foot forward, taking my time, and being diligent with the task proves to be the most satisfying rewards from the end product.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.drkenlang.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrKenLang
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkenlang/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrKenLang
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrKenLang
- Other: https://linktr.ee/drkenlang
Image Credits
Dustin Crutchfield