Science of Crime Scenes Chapter 4.0 Science of Crime Scenes

General Crime Scene Procedure All crime scene procedures are based around the three R’s: Recognize Recover Record The three R’s may seem simplistic They are methods by which the maximum amount of information may be extracted from any crime scene by a well-trained experienced crime scene team Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Recognize Establish the dimensions and identify potential safety and health hazards Establish dimensions Locate focal point Check for “secondary” scene Identify safety hazards Biohazards, power, weapons, chemical hazards, traps Contamination Victim assistance Communicate hazards to other responders Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Recognize Establish Security Establish boundaries, physical barriers, entry/exit paths Restrict access Log participants Exclude unnecessary people Protect evidence Plan and communicate Determine type of investigation Gather data and intelligence Address legal issues Determine processing priority Define resources (current and future) Secure areas Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Recognize Conduct a primary survey Identify evidence Document Determine processing list for evidence collection Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Record Document and process the scene Photography Notes Observations Sketches Task assignment Conduct a secondary survey Determine search pattern Prioritize search areas Consider environmental factors Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Recover Recover and preserve evidence Collect evidence Science of Crime Scenes

Can you “freeze” a crime scene? It’s not easy It can’t be done The best a CSI and his team can do is to minimize the loss of physical evidence and recover the maximum amount of pertinent physical evidence. Science of Crime Scenes

Garbage Truck Forensics Fear is not a good strategy Yet fear of missing evidence leads some police agencies or CSIs to collect every possible item of potential evidence at a crime scene They “dump” all of this evidence at the laboratory, thinking, “They’re the smart scientists; they can sort out the important stuff.” “Garbage truck forensics” This type of unconsidered evidence submission creates numerous problems in the criminal justice system Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Opportunity Costs An opportunity cost is the cost of doing something measured in terms of the value of not doing the next best thing (the second best choice) In economics, it is characterized as the essential relationship between scarcity and choice If someone wanted to go to two sporting events that were scheduled for the same time, they can only go to one. The opportunity cost of going to the basketball game would be the cost of not going to the hockey game. Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Opportunity Costs Likewise, if a “garbage truck” of evidence is submitted to the laboratory, it will take the scientists that much longer to sort through all of the items, process them, and then choose which ones to analyze The time they spend doing this keeps them from working other items in other cases, possibly ones that were submitted by the very same CSI Therefore, the opportunity cost of submitting everything and hoping the laboratory will sort it out is increasing the time to process the next case submitted Complaints may be voiced about how slow the laboratory is without realizing the CSIs and officers in the field are directly contributing to the wait Science of Crime Scenes

Science of Crime Scenes Intelligence, not fear This reinforces the importance that systematic methods must be used to recognize and recover physical evidence that is relevant to the investigation while excluding unnecessary material. Science of Crime Scenes