When a crime has been committed, a number of different agencies are called out to the scene, depending on who is needed, for example if there has been an arson attack, The police, paramedics and the Fire Department would all be required; however for a murder, the Fire Department would obviously not be required. Not all of the agencies called to the crime scene however will be actively involved in the remained of the investigation, as the paramedics for example have no responsibility to the case, only to the well being of their patient. This also works the other way round, as not everyone who is involved in the case will be needed at the crime scene, for example the lawyers who will be involved later on in the case, who will gain all of the information they need based on the notes and evidence forms filled out at the crime scene, by both police officers and forensic investigators.The OJ Simpson Case
Concerning the OJ Simpson Case, there were multiple different agencies involve , including the Police, The SOCO team, and the paramedics. The key police officers present at the scene were, Robert Riske, the first attending officer, Mark Furhman, the lead investigator, alongside Philip Vannetter and Tom Lange.
Working alongside these officers was the Forensic Investigation Team, attempting to collect and preserve any evidence they could find at the scene, the Exhibits Officer, attempting to keep any and all of the evidence collected safe, and accounted for, and the paramedics, looking for sighs of life and taking the bodies to be examined by the pathologist.
However; there is a responsibility in all of these roles, to be professional and work to a high standard - two requirements which were not adhered to by the majority of those working the OJ Simpson Case.
First of all, Robert Risk, the First Attending Officer was unable to follow the forensic guidelines set out, advising him to wear gloves when touching anything at a crime scene; when he picked up a phone receiver in order to call the police station.
Also, when Philip Vanetter took over as lead detective from Furhman and Riske, Furhman neglected to hand his initial scene notes to Vanetter, meaning that bloody fingerprints scene by Furhman were left un-examined, and then lost. This evidence could have potentially led to a conviction, but was missed due to a lack of communication.
Furthermore, much of the evidence collected by the Forensic Team involved in the case is not to a high enough standard, as the work they were doing was sloppy to say the least. Not only did they collect multiple samples of evidence in the same evidence bags, leading to cross contamination, but they neglected to label certain samples, leading to them going missing. This evidence, as a result could not be used in court, as it could easily have been contaminated, and tampered with.
Both the officers and the SOCO team were also un-able to work under the high pressures due to the high media attention, causing the contamination of all evidence on the body of the victim when a blanket was draped over the body, contaminating the entire body as evidence.
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