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Unit 4 Assignment A - Investigating a Crime Scene
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This is the first assignment for unit 4 in the course. You can use this as a guideline.
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Investigating a Crime SceneUnit 5
There’s many things that need to be done in order to secure a crime scene, and collect all
the evidence so you can locate your offender and protect your victim. In crime scene
investigation, there are many different roles that need to be fulfilled, for example a head of
the team which leads and guides the team, and makes final decisions for what goes ahead
and the methods used to collect evidence. There are multiple things you must do to ensure a
scene is kept safe and secure, and free from contamination:
Securing the Scene
Initially, securing the scene is an integral part of the crime scene investigation process. This
involves cordoning off the scene and securing an entry and exit route. An entry and exit
route is necessary as it provides a safe way of entering and exiting the scene and also
means you can keep a record on who does, this is to ensure there’s a lesser risk of
contamination and a constant controlled environment where no unauthorised personnel can
enter the scene. At crime scene, you must also have PPE (personal protective equipment),
this includes things like face masks and gloves, this is effective as it not only creates a safer
environment to ensure no bodily fluids that may be present on the scene don’t pose a risk
through potential dangerous pathogens, but also that the scene is protected. For example, if
you were to enter a crime scene with no protective covering on your shoes, you could leave
footprints on the floor, which could be used as potential evidence and collected, despite the
fact it’s not a part of the initial crime scene, and causes a waste of resources and could
overall make the evidence less reliable in court if contamination may have taken place with
other pieces of vital evidence. Also, whilst securing the scene one must only cordon off
appropriate areas to the events of the scene, like the front of the house. This can vary with
how severe the crime is, on whether you need to cordon of entire roads or just a specific
area, like for minor criminal damage you wouldn’t need to cordon off an entire street where
the event took place, as it can inconvenience the general public, and you’d want to minimise
the disruption.
This also is shown through satellite scenes, by contaminating the scene yourself and not
securing it properly by cordoning it off and using PPA, satellite scenes are all the different
locations related to your primary crime scene, it can include things like the vehicles the
offender has been in to get away/to the scene or it even can be different people entering the
scene and leaving fingerprints as they are now related to the crime scene. We see in
Locard’s principle it states: “Whenever two objects come into contact, a transfer of material
occurs.” Therefore, applying this to securing your scene, you need to ensure everything is
cordoned off, otherwise materials will transfer onto one another and potentially damage
some important evidence and your team may become a satellite scene. It can also cause
cross-transfer of materials such as glass and clothing fibres, which can lead to evidence that
is vulnerable being lost. Securing the scene is the first step to ensure evidence is correctly
collected.
Separating the Witnesses
, Witnesses are another vital component in collecting evidence, and the potential events that
unfolded. If witnesses are still present at the scene, you must instantly make sure that they
are not harmed or injured as the lives of the people present are your first priority as a SOCO.
If they are well, you need to take statements from the witnesses, this can be at a police
station or an area with neutral ground where they feel comfortable. It’s important to take
statements as fast as possible, this is because the longer it does take, the less accurate the
person's memory of the event will be, and the less detailed. You can do many things to try to
help a witness remember events, this can be things such as using a bird's eye floor plan of
the crime scene, so they can picture the event or point out where certain items were.
The reliability of witnesses can also be assessed and questioned, depending on the severity
of the crime and things like the age for example, of the witness it could affect how much
information they remember and how well they remember it. Statements are always recorded
and written down, in the exact words of the witness, and a record is kept on all the
statements they make and can be reviewed alongside other witnesses, to gather different
perspectives and try to align events to see if there’s any inconsistencies. Leading questions
(questions that may make the witness answer in a certain way) must be avoided if possible
to create accuracy. Questions like: describe what you saw, and, describe what the offender
looked like/ if you saw an offender would be asked. You
Scanning and Seeing the Scene
Scanning the scene is integral as it ensures any dangers/hazards are spotted. Ensuring your
team is safe is the most important thing in crime scene investigations. Scanning the scene
allows for initial impressions to be gathered, reducing the risk of contamination, and calling
expertise you may need to the scene. For example, if you’re entering a building, and the
structural integrity of the building seems unsafe, you’d call up the fire service to check it
before you enter the scene, this is because the safety of your team as a SOCO is the
priority, even if it means not being able to enter certain parts of said building.
Seeing the scene also allows for documentation of things like the location, victims and
evidence through photography. During the investigation, a sub team of photographers will
take pictures of the scene. Photography is vital to a crime scene as it allows for physical still
photos to be used in court, and can help confirm witness testimonies based on the
location/placement of certain evidence or a victim and can corroborate events. The
photography is done in the initial stages of an investigation, this is so you can see exactly
what happened, if you were to leave it until later stages, vital evidence that could’ve been
taken pictures of could’ve been cleared or already stored as evidence, so it’s important you
do this first, to get the most accurate picture of the scene. There are different types of
photography, these are overview, mid-range and close-up. These different ranges allow for
more perspective on the scene and the evidence through how close your photograph is
taken, and allow you to take photos from different angles. If you’re taking pictures of objects
as evidence, you should use a ruler to show the approximate length and width of the objects,
if you were to not use a ruler to show the size, it could make the object seem larger or
smaller and could warp the perspective, which could result in miscommunication in court and
make the evidence more unreliable as you can’t properly compare photos and sizes
because they’d all appear to be different lengths depending on the lighting and angles
you’ve taken the photos at. Initially, any exterior things like the entry and exit point must be
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