The Adverse Impacts of Mishandled Evidence

Evidence plays a vital role when it comes to upholding the law and ensuring justice is served. The way perpetrators are caught and punished is through pieces of evidence found at a crime scene. With even some of the best investigators making mistakes when it comes to evidence tracking, this can cause serious problems in determining who is to blame for a crime.

While evidence tracking used to be done manually, it was very difficult to do because of the variables involved and the uncertainties that played a role at a scene. Today, thanks to evidence software, there is now a more accurate way to track crime scenes and serve justice properly.

Things to Note About Mishandling Evidence

If you are a law enforcement officer, the most important part about anything relating to a crime scene is the handling of evidence. A great evidence tracking system offers you a way to manage all the pieces you come across and helps you stitch them together to create a bigger picture.

Handling a crime scene means being completely honest with your findings and testimony in court. To lie about anything that was found at the scene is tampering. Because you were present at a crime scene and have seen all the pieces that were found firsthand, this makes you a witness to a certain degree. The burden of preserving any evidence that can prove or disprove who was behind the entire crime rests in your lap.

What if Evidence Has Been Mishandled at a Scene?

Right away, if evidence tracking has been mishandled or tampered with, several agents must be notified via a written notice. The first to respond would be a supervisor of the officers at the crime scene, along with the prosecuting attorney, to discuss the potential impacts on the case. It is also important to notify the evidence tracking department to give them a heads up on the situation, which they will then input into their evidence software. The most important thing in these kinds of situations is being honest about what has happened.

What’s Next?

The best way to go about the next steps is to check for further pieces of information gathered from the crime scene, suspects, or witnesses. Check if there was a confession made or if digital evidence was collected, such as through dash cams or CCTV cameras. If these were gathered and proven to be true, the case may be closed and successfully done. Otherwise, it would be important to keep moving forward by gathering information on what has happened.

Avoiding Mishandling of Evidence

Leaving evidence tracking and management to the right bodies of the law enforcement agency saves time all around by ensuring it is handled correctly from the start. At a scene, if you are an officer, cordon off the area and wait for the rest of the team to get there. Avoid trying to examine the evidence yourself if you are not the person in charge of tracking. The best thing to do is stick to your duties as an officer and ensure that the area is surveyed and blocked off while the rest of the officers do their job. With evidence software, the evidence department of the law enforcement agency will be able to do their job effectively.

Evidence Is King in Serving Justice

Evidence tracking can be difficult, but thanks to evidence tracking systems and other forms of technologies, the whole process is much easier and simpler than it used to be. Accuracy and honesty are the two most important aspects of evidence management, and as law enforcement agents, upholding these two values is a must.

Avoid Mishandling Evidence with PMI Evidence Tracker™

For the best evidence tracking system, the PMI Evidence Tracker™ is a powerful tool that provides law enforcement agents with the best systems available for evidence management. Keep all evidence in one place and at a highly accurate place by getting one of our evidence trackers to assist in serving justice at your local levels.