The Importance of Scene preservation By Lewis Grocutt

At the scene of a incident such as a road traffic collision there has to be an investigation to see why the incident occurred the site of a RTC is a crime scene with evidence that will determine the cause if the incident especially in the unfortunate event that there is loss of life

Arrival at Scene

When arriving at the scene of an incident the first officer their must make a note of the following things

·         Time and date

·         Weather conditions

It also the task of the officer to preserve and secure the area to maximum effect because this has now become a crime scene it is important to note that if there is urgent medical attention is needed to victims this has to be the officers main priority.

However unauthorised persons such be kept out of the area this is because there is a high risk that they may tamper or contaminate evidence.

Once the area has been secured the investigating officer must then start to evaluate the crime scene and have a method of investigation for the crime scene investigators

They have to

·         Ensure the preservation of the evidence this is form tampering persons, weather or fire the evidence has to be preserved.

·         Remove any witnesses form the area and take their details for the later inquiry

·         They must record all movement at the scene and not persons moving evidence

Recording the Crime Scene

Recording the crime scene untouched in its original state is very important for the inquire and to provide evidence in court.

When in court details of the incident scene and the location of physical evidence have to be provided as evidence there are three way of recording evidence these are

·         Photographs

·         Sketches

·         Notes

The police service now use video recordings which combine all three of the above making it a effective way of recording a crime scene

Photographs

The police photograph the scene of the incident to show a clearer picture of the whole environment they take photographs of physical evidence to show their location and relevance to the incident.

They take closer up images of the evidence to show them in a greater detail. If unfortunately there has been a fatality the body needs to be photographed from different angles to show Injuries and when the body has been removed the ground beneath it also needs to be photographed as party of the evidence.

Sketches

A rough sketch of the scene should be made by the investigating officer this enables maximum information to be obtained. The sketched area should show all the evidence. It should have the measurements of the scene from two fixed points which is taken form a tape measure the compass north needs to be indicated on the sketch.

The sketch is only a rough sketch and the officer does not need to focus on how neat it is only on getting down the maximum amount of information.

The rough sketch is then reproduced using computer software which can then be later used in court.

Note Taking

Alongside the use of photographs and the sketches the police use note taking to give a detailed description of the scene they also make not of any persons that come into contact with the evidence. The police officer can use a voice recorder for this purpose but they will have  to transfer the information to a written document to be provided as evidence in court

These methods are used to record the scene and all the evidence and information that is in the scene of the incident

Searching for evidence at the scene

Obtaining evidence in the scene of an incident is very important the more evidence the stronger the case and a more detailed explanation to what happened during the incident. The police carry out a detailed search of the area and to ensure that there are no duplication of efforts in the investigation a forensic officer would not be brought on the scene the police use field evidence technicians that are skilled in photography and evidence gathering to collect physical evidence.

When searching the scene if officers find any doubtful items they needed to class them as evidence unless they can be proven otherwise protective clothing needs to be worn so that the officers do not contaminate the scene

Evidence that is obtained is stored and labelled by the police and held at the police station until it is given at the court case.

 

So why is scene preservation important?

Scene preservation is very important at scenes of incidents it allows officer to determine what happened and who was at fault if there is any. The evidence that is obtained can be used in the later inquiries and court cases.

We have had an example for one of our college lectures Bob Hopkins who is a former police inspector he told us of the time that he attended the scene of a rtc and once the initial incident had been dealt with a fire officer began to was the road washing away evidence before the police had begun there initial investigations tampering with evidence is a very serious offence and he had to report this matter on the following accounts one removing an tampering with evidence and secondly he was operating without instruction of guidance from bronze command in a incident.

Preserving evidence if very important it allows emergency officer to find out what happed so we might learn from other peoples mistakes.