CRIME SCENE- Police Line Do Not Cross

August 16, 2010

A crime scene tells us the story of an illegal act that took place. It comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieve by trained law enforcerment personnel, crime science investigators (CSI’s) or in rare circumstances forensic scientist. There are primary, seconday, and tertiary crime scenes. for instance an offender enter a residence, ( primary crime scene) take the daughter in another room to sexually assault her (secondary crime scene) transport the victim( car would be the tertiary crime scene) commit another crime at a distant location for instance murder and dump the body ( fourth crime scene). On the other hand, (lee et al) classify them into two types only i.e primary or secondary. The primary crime scene is where the body of the victim was found, secondary crime scene includes the victim’s home, suspect’s vehicle and road between the suspect and victim.

Processing a crime scene is a tedious process. It involves careful collection of physical evidence. Investigators need to established the boundaries of the crime scene. they often used dogs or teams to search for the boundaries. After that they will protect it by taping the wide area to prevent access by other people other than the investigators, this is to ensure a satisfactory ending. Since the offender spend considerable time at the crime scene, All locations where there is potential recovery of evidence must not be interfered. The investigators need to protect and preserve the trace evidence in its current form. They will used it in their further investigation.

There is no typical investigative approached, they differ considerably. However, when the Crime Science Investigators or CSI’s arrived they will do initial walk-through, search the place, take notes and collect the potential evidence e.g (weapons, blood or body fluids, imprints/fingerprints or impression, tool marks, dust and dirt traces etc) while orderly following their protocols. They need to know if anyone put or remove anything before they arrived at the crime scene. In some cases, they include a video walk-through, they also take photographs, draw sketches. They also conduct questioning of witness and suspects. Only when recording has taken place items can be removed for laboratory analysis.

The investigators try to link cases by attempting to connect it, they need to obtain accurate description of the body’s condition. but sometimes with the witness lacking knowledge about the importance of the crime scene they will accidentally steer away investigation. for instance they find the body of their family undress and in a very degrading position, they will try to redress the victim this will apparently create possible problem and will make the crime unresolve.

In fact, far many investigators have done wrong too, It is when they keep the media and journalist away, they also keep the valuable informations to other law enforcement personnel and restrict information from a crime scene. This will make people think that there is a cover-up.

Police officers, crime science investigators, and forensic scientist is the one who will try to illuminate what happened and who did the crime. They play an important role in solving the crime. Physical evidence is only a part of the equation. But the final disposition of a crime scene depends on the investigators assigned in the case. Their abilities to analyze the crime will hopefully unfold and solve the crime that will lead to the arrest of the offenders.

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