CrimePsych

The various forensic disciplines may run a vast number of tests once evidence has been collected from a crime scene but there is an immense amount of work that needs to be conducted before they get to this stage. This article will focus on those procedures and the job of first responders, whether they are police, paramedics or other emergency services, as well as the roles of crime scene investigators once they are called out.

Usually the first responder will be a local police officer, and it is their job to do their best at taking detailed field notes about what they deem to be the crime scene after initially establishing weather there are victims and any assailant still at the scene. While establishing this they also need to ensure the safety of everybody involved and secure the scene ensuring as little interference as possible (preferably none) with said scene as this can disturb vital evidence. These field notes as well as the first responder’s initial impressions of the scene can contain crucial evidence relevant to the outcome of the investigation.

When it comes to this type of unfortunate event safety is always the number one priority. While providing any urgently needed first aid to people at the scene those undertaking the first aid must also be weary of destroying, damaging or losing evidence that is on a person’s body or clothes. They need to ensure that they don’t wash or remove any clothing as this can lead to the loss of blood, hair, skin or other evidence such as fibres which could be used in the investigation.

It is also the responsibility of the first units on scene to keep track of where the injured or victims are taken to. Generally speaking, depending on a combination of variables including the injuries of persons involved and the paramedic units that respond to the scene they can be transported to one if not two or even more hospitals/medical facilities so ensuring adequate information is collected about the individuals being transported away is important. Another strategy commonly used is to send a police officer along with paramedics to the hospital.

On top of this it can also be a good idea to keep an eye out for individuals or even groups, depending on the crime, that are acting suspiciously. A number of criminals, depending on their psychological makeup (as well as other influences) are known to stick around the crime scene and observe the ‘goings on’.

Having gotten the situation under control, offering first aid where needed while keeping an eye out for likely suspects or offenders first responders also need to take care of another aspect touched on earlier – security. As one is likely aware the role of first responders requires a large amount of multi-tasking, and although all these requirements are being addressed somewhat separately in this article it really is more a case of doing them all at the same time.

While securing the physical scene those that are first on site should attempt to take note of any entrances or exits, while also noting the movements of individuals and vehicles, noting times, number plates and other descriptive elements. This will be invaluable information for the investigators, giving them a head start in the investigation and also ensuring any physical evidence is left un-tampered with through either deliberate or unintentional interference.

Upon the investigation team arriving it is the initial responders job to give them a run down of the crime scene, including providing them with any notes or diagrams they have taken or drawn. This, as previously stated, gives the investigation team a head start in rapidly receiving the information required to launch their investigation from.

Once investigators have officially taken control of the scene they begin looking for further clues, search the area and speak to any witnesses that are available. This is another case of first impressions counting as investigators only get one chance of doing an initial search. Goes without saying right? The point one is trying to make is that by conducting a search those on the scene disturb the area as they go over it, hence they only get one chance at gaining a true impression of what the location was like when the incident took place.

While always expressing care with evidence collection those tasked with the job must also act quickly for a number of reasons. Firstly, depending on the evidence, it can deteriorate, get washed away by rain, get contaminated by other outside influences. Further to this, depending on the location of the incident, the area might need to be opened to the public again as soon as possible – it is unlikely that the only staircase in a multistory unit block can be kept closed for an extended period of time, the same goes for public roads and various other types of locations.

Lastly investigators need to be discriminatory when it comes to what constitutes evidence and what doesn’t as collecting too much evidence and submitting it for processing can overwhelm even the biggest of forensic laboratories. As you would expect, the nature of the incident will have a large influence over what evidence is constituted as useful. If you are investigating a plane crash such as the tragedy of Flight 103 http://www.lifetakers.com/the-lockerbie-tragedy-flight-103 then the size of the crime scene will be 1000′s of times larger than if the incident was a murder that took place in a single room of a house.

Once evidence has been identified as important then it is imperative that a large a sample as possible be collected to ensure testing can be carried out on it. Larger samples are not only cheaper to test but a defense attorney or defense team may ask for samples of the evidence so as to have their own experts examine them. This is becoming a much more common scenario with both prosecutors and defense lawyers presenting their own ‘expert’ witnesses with contradicting analyses.

One very important thing to keep in mind when apparent evidence has been detected, and this is another one of those situations that you would think went without saying, but it is absolutely essential that those on the scene do not attempt to ‘connect the dots’ then and there. What is meant by this is an investigator should never take two separate pieces of evidence that they think are somehow connected and try to connect them, as this will be done later in a laboratory under strict protocols to prevent the evidence from being contaminated, damaged etc. For (an unlikely) example, a rape victim is found to have teeth marks on her shoulder – and investigators find a pair of false teeth at the scene that they believe match the teeth marks on her person. Under no circumstances should they attempt to match the teeth with the marks on her as this will destroy the evidences value (let alone cause the person involved additional psychological trauma).

It is for this reason that evidence samples are stored separately from one another under very regulated protocols, and depending on the type of evidence it will also be kept away from sources of light, heat and sometimes even refrigerated such as the case with biological materials.

In addition to collecting evidence from the scene, and depending on the crime, forensics experts or investigators will search any detained suspects as well as take evidence from the unfortunate victims. No matter who undertakes these searches the processes and procedures will be exactly the same – every piece of evidence is carefully put into a sealed bag and documented with notes about its current condition and where it was found (on the ground, on a person etc.). Without this documentation the evidence is useless when conducting a trial as even with a chain of custody there is still no way to prove where the evidence was collected, or when the evidence was collected – a gold mine for a defense attorney.

Lastly it is also important to remove suspects from the scene as soon as possible (if caught at the scene) and if caught elsewhere, to try and avoid bringing them back to the scene as every contact leaves behind evidence through transference. The reasons for this are to avoid giving suspects the ability to claim that footprints, or other evidence, are there as a result of the visits they made to the scene of the crime directly after it had been committed. Another aspect of this final stage is ensuring that all eyewitnesses or people with any sort of witness information are kept away from each other in order to avoid contamination that is to ensure independence of their statements.