Preliminary Investigation
When a preliminary investigation is initiated the main objective is to find out who can be suspected of the crime that has been committed. There is than an observation to whether there is enough evidence surrounding the crime to whether further action should be taken such as a full investigation, formal accusation, and trial.
A preliminary investigation depends on what type of crime has been committed.
In the case of a murder crime the scene the First Attending Officer will make an
assessment on scene to whether a crime has been committed and if so than the
FAO will corner of the crime scene and establish how wide the search needs to
be for the crime. The scene in cornered off in order to prevent any evidence being
contaminated or moved by any potential suspects. The FAO at the crime scene
will make a report which will involve asking the witness who reported the crime
to the police a few questions in order to receive the details of the
witness. These details will include their name, address, phone number, their
location and their relationship to the victim. The demeanour of the
witness who reported the crime is also noted down as this could be used
for further investigation when potential suspects are interviewed. In the
report are also noted down are precise location details of the crime scene. The
FAO will also make note of any other witnesses or people who are at the crime
scene. The first descriptions and details of the victim/s will be
reported and they will try to be identified in order for these details to
be written down in the report to make further action on, such as informing
family of the deceased. In the event of the caller reporting the crime is
attempting to remain anonymous, as this person will be potential suspect or
witness to the crime all effort is made in order to find out the identity of
the anonymous caller.
Anything at a crime scene can be considered and taken as evidence. This evidence could be taken from what a witness has seen or physical evidence that is collected from the crime scene. However no evidence from the crime scene can be collected until Scene of Crime Officers arrives at the scene. SOCO's recover the evidence at all different types of crime scenes. The main role of a SOCO is to locate, collect, preserve and catalogue evidence from a crime scene. In order for evidence to be collected correctly by a SOCO there are certain procedures that are put in place first in order to prevent any contamination, damage or spooling evidence.
The First Attending Officer will set up a common approach path (CAP) this path is set up so that there is a clear footpath way to follow in the crime scene to avoid any evidence being contaminated, spoiled or destroyed due to carelessness. The evidence then found at a crime scene will be decided by a SOCO the best way to collect the evidence they have found, such a paper bag, plastic container, tape etc. Then the evidence has to be photographed, within the photograph has to be a scale, a number card from the CAP and a identity card which has all the details about the piece of evidence such as what it is, where it was found and who it was found by etc. Once the evidence is photographed it will then be put in to an appropriate bag or container where the bag or container is then fully sealed with tape and labelled. The evidence is than placed in a vehicle where it will then be taken to the forensic laboratory where scientists will investigate further in to the evidence found.
For the murder case of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman when authorities arrived a lot of the practices and procedures were not carried out in a professional way. As the media arrived there was a sudden rush to cover up the bodies therefore a blanket was taken from inside Nicole Brow Simspon's house to cover up the bodies to prevent the media from taking photos of the horrific scene. However by covering the bodies caused them to then become contaminated and any vital evidence such as the suspects blood or fingerprint could no longer be used as evidence presented in a court of law as the evidence had been contaminated and damaged and was not preserved. Also this rush of authority figures caused careless mistakes as not full uniform was not worn by the authorities which than caused bloody footprints from the suspect to be stepped in by numerous officers which then made extremely difficult to collect a full footprint from the suspect without it being contaminated by careless officers. Scene of Crime Officers did not carry out the procedures to taking a forensic photograph correctly and missed out important information within the photograph as identity cards were not filled out properly and the correct sized scale was not used in every photograph. This made it near enough impossible to work out the size of the piece of evidence from the photograph. Another critical mistake made by the forenic evidence collection team (scene of crime officers) was the collection of the evidence. Evidence items were bagged together which cause cross contamination making this evidence invalid and therefore could not be presented within a court as evidence for the committed crime. Also wet evidence items were bagged up before they were dry which cause critical change within the evidence, this caused loss of further evidence.
Sounds like this was set up to fail.....
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