How to Assess the Scene of a Crime: A Guide for New Officers

Collecting physical evidence at a crime scene takes a great deal of care and consideration. Since various materials could be at the site, an investigator should know which items are evidence for an investigation. Here are a few things to remember about collecting evidence.

What Types of Evidence Should an Officer Collect?

An officer should know how to look for biological products like blood, fluids, hair, and latent evidence like prints, and others. They should also know how to collect evidence of shoe prints, tire tracks, and other forms of evidence like fibers, soil, glass fragments, tools, and tool marks.

Digital evidence like camera footage and social media activity could also help investigators. With this in mind, officers should handle them with the same care and use appropriate retrieval and archival procedures. An evidence tracking system helps with preserving items collected onsite.

Furthermore, there could be intentional traps or biohazards waiting for responders, so they need to be very careful when dealing with evidentiary issues like fires or gas.

What Samples Can an Officer Collect?

The evidence an officer needs to collect depends on the crime committed. For example, when gathering evidence for burglary, an officer needs to photograph the scene and document it first. Then, they should collect trace materials from probable entry points and low-level DNA evidence from areas of likely contact like doorknobs. They must also store other items with possible biological evidence. Finally, they need to locate and collect latent fingerprints.

Who Must Examine a Crime Scene?

In most instances, the detective responsible for interviewing persons of interest and victims is the one who pieces together the information gathered from evidence. They work with crime scene personnel like photographers and evidence collection specialists. They can also retrieve items from the department’s evidence tracking system.

How Do You Conduct a Crime Scene Investigation?

First, an officer needs to establish the scene dimensions and identify potential hazards. They need to find the scene’s “focal point,” the area where most of the incident took place. From that point, they will radiate out and establish an area that might contain all relevant physical evidence. They must also establish potential paths of perpetrator entry and exit.

Then, the officers in charge must establish security. Every person who enters or exits a scene will affect the material in place, so securing the area is a high priority. Officers achieve this by cordoning off the scene with yellow tape, stationing guards at the entrance, and similar methods.

After securing the area, the officers can conduct a primary survey aimed at evidence collection. Every aspect of the crime scene will need to be documented. Officers must record everything from the state of all the furniture and items to the room’s temperature.

In evidence collection, especially for biological items, investigators must follow proper procedures. After the primary survey, officers must conduct a second sweep for quality control. Finally, the officers must record and preserve evidence. An evidence tracking system, especially a modernized one, will help officers preserve data correctly.

Who Conducts Tests on Collected Evidence?

Some tests do not need to be conducted in a laboratory—crime scene personnel can conduct initial screenings, which are known as presumptive tests. These can help identify the types of substances present. For example, it can identify drugs on a surface, the type of body fluid on a stain, and others.

Presumptive tests allow investigators to eliminate several possibilities, which makes the process more efficient. In addition, tests like these reduce the quantity of data that needs to pass through evidence tracking systems and make processes quicker at laboratories.

Police Evidence Management Software for Your Department

Evidence collection can be challenging, especially if the scene is incredibly complex or cluttered. With this in mind, having tools and procedures will streamline processes. Having an up-to-date evidence tracking system makes the cataloging and archiving process more manageable for police departments.

Get a tried and tested evidence tracking system for your department at PMI Evidence Tracker™. We provide complete evidence management solutions for organizations of all sizes at affordable prices. Our system is designed by Cops for Cops. Get in touch with us today for more information.