The Crime Scene

The CSI team for major incidents should be made-up of multiple qualified personnel, each with clearly defined duties and responsibilities. Each member of the team, whether the team is large or small, must have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and what is permitted and prohibited during the scene process. Responsibilities begin with preparation before receiving an assignment and continue until after the scene has been released and the administrative process of completing casework has been completed. In some respects the responsibilities of being a member of a CSI team will extend to the completion of follow-up work and appearance and testimony during court hearings well after the incident has been concluded. To properly manage a crime scene investigation team the crime scene unit manager must first

delineate the required team components and the roles and responsibilities that each component will encompass. Once all of roles that are required to properly process a crime scene have been identified and the responsibilities of each are delineated then a review of the unit’s personnel may be conducted to identify which members are qualified to perform the various roles required in a proficient manner. Having a unit roster with individual qualifications listed will help supervisors to quickly and properly staff a CSI team when it is needed. This pre-screening process will also serve to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the unit as a whole and may reveal areas where additional training resources need to be committed. Since there are many roles listed in the team’s makeup, it may be necessary for a single qualified

individual to assume several roles during the various stages of the process. For instance, the lead investigator may also serve as the photographer and latent print technician. There are often cases where multiple related scenes involved in a single crime are discovered.When

secondary or tertiary scenes occur at the same time it is usually not the best practice to have a single individual serve as a CSI between multiple scenes. In order to avoid confusion, expedite evidence gathering and, perhaps most importantly, to avoid inter-scene contamination it may become necessary to assign separate investigators to handle each location independently. An example would be a

homicide in a suspect’s home where the victim’s body is simultaneously recovered at a dump site. Locard’s Theory of the transfer of evidence tells us that it is possible for a person who comes into contact with both scenes to cause a transfer of evidence from one scene into the other. So if for instance the victim’s hair were discovered in the suspect’s home by an investigator who had earlier visited the dump site it may become questionable as to whether the hair was deposited by contact between the suspect and victim or by cross contamination. The real possibility of cross contamination alone can raise doubt and diminish the probative value of forensic evidence whether or not it actually does occur. If it is a necessity to have investigators respond to associated crime scenes extraordinary steps must be taken to prevent the possibility of cross contamination and those steps should be meticulously documented. How the scene process is approached by the crime scene investigation team is another concern

which is usually pre-determined by the unit’s business practices. In his book “A Practical Guide to Crime Scene Processing”Gardner describes two differing approaches to processing a crime scene. The first is an area approach where individuals are assigned to perform all of the tasks required to process a specific section or area within a scene. The second approach is task based where each individual on the team performs a single task in the process of the entire scene. Many local and state agencies may lack the manpower to form a truly task based team; instead the

team members may be forced to wear several different hats to accomplish the process in a practical amount of time. Perhaps a third approach, and one that is used on major investigations in NewYork City, might be a combination of the two methods where some members of the team may handle several tasks such as, photos, sketching, mapping, measurements, physical searches, and collection of physical evidence that does not require on-scene processing, while other members concentrate on single tasks such as only processing for latent prints or DNA.Either method may be acceptable as long as it is properly executed but there is great benefit to determining what the appropriate approach is and describing it in the unit’s standard operating procedures in advance. Another important consideration for managing a CSI team is the availability and procurement of

expertise from outside the crime scene unit. Too often in law enforcement work there is a reluctance to consult with others from outside the immediate agency regarding an investigation. Confidentiality concerns are an issue but there are many forensic experts who can bring a wealth of knowledge to an investigation and the team can leverage that knowledge to maximize the evidence gathering process and improve the likelihood of a successful investigative outcome. The crime scene unit managers should foster the development of professional relationships between the members of the crime scene unit and other areas of forensic expertise. This can be done through attending professional association meetings, coordinating multi discipline training events, and developing written memos of understanding between the CSI team and other experts.