Most Important Crime Scene Responsibilities

I feel the most important crime scene responsibilities are scene safety and security, evaluation of the scene, and documentation. The first responder’s primary responsibility should scene safety and security. This will protect the crime scene, prevents entry or access from persons who are not unauthorized or have no specific reason to be there, and prevents the loss, alteration, movement and contamination of evidence. If the first responder has identified evidence, he or she should document or photograph, but not touch or handle the evidence, until investigators arrive (Geberth, 203).

The second important responsibility is an evaluation of the scene. Since anything and everything can be considered evidence, it is vital the officers perform an initial evaluation of the scene, identifying anything he or she observes about the victim, the scene, and the surroundings. If paramedics have been called, the first responder should try and photograph

This has several important parts to it. By documenting dates, times, conditions, and other events related to the crime scene it can help guide a more effective search. Also, any observations or information provided by the first responder or other officers should be indicated here. The photographic log should also be documented, which can provide technical descriptive to record the varying views of the crime scene photographs. Another item that is important in the documentation aspect is the diagram/sketch of the crime scene. This would include measurements of the scene, relation to size and distance, and location of evidentiary items. Finally, documentation should include the evidence recovery log and latent print log. Documentation should indicate where these were recovered, how they were recovered, who discovered the evidence, any markings or other identifiers on the evidence, that may accompany the chain of custody log (Crime Scene Investigator Network,