Preliminary and Follow-up Investigations begin once the police have arrived at the scene of the crime, and begin to decide what has occurred at the scene, to gain any importance information which could aid the rest of the case, and to hopefully identify a suspect. This includes identifying the nature of the crime which has been committed (Murder, Theft, Burglary), and the identity of the victim(s). Once these facts have been ascertained, the next line of inquiry is to search for the criminal responsible for the crime. This can be done by searching the crime scene for any evidence, which will link anyone to the scene, or by asking witnesses for descriptions, and any important information about the criminal/crime.
If this process is not done correctly, it can often cause the investigation to fall into a stand-still, and will often not be investigation further. The preliminary investigation will be completed and carried out in a number of different ways depending on the nature of the crime at hand, for example when concerning a murder scene, the first attending officers main priority is to search the scene for the assailant, and peruse them if necessary, whereas regarding a robbery, the officers duties concern the gathering of evidence and recording what has been stolen. In some cases, the FAO will decide that no crime has been committed at all, therefore closing the investigation immediately. In some cases the crime will still be occurred, for example in a hostage situation- at which point the FAO will need to deal with the situation in the best possible manner, either by contacting a specialist Negotiator or a SWAT team.
The first attending officer, will keep a record of all information that they learn regarding the scene. This investigation will then either then become their case, or will be delegated to a better equipped officer; For example, in the case of a murder, the investigation will be assigned to a homicide detective(In the USA), or will be given to an inspector/detective in the UK. The FAO will then secure the scene, cornering it off using crime scene tape and will ascertain where the boundaries of the scene are, and keep a detailed log of everyone who enters and exits the scene.
The first attending officer will then interview any witnesses at the scene, including the victim if they are still alive and able to talk, for example if they are mugged.
While at the scene, Forensic Investigators will be called to the scene in order to investigate, being sure to wear Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) suits in order to not contaminate the scene, and any evidence which may be useful for a conviction. The evidence collection team need to find, collect and catalogue all evidence present at the scene, in order to keep all of the information usable for court, and restricting contamination. But first they must obtain any and all information from the First Attending Officer regarding his findings, which could narrow down the evidence search to things which are relevant to the case so far.
When entering the crime scene, the forensic team must be sure to enter via the Common Approach Path, which has been set up in order to keep contamination to a minimum, by minimising the floor being stepped on by the team.
While conducting the investigation, it is important to canvas the area in order to determine whether there were any witnesses to the crime who could held shed light on the investigation, this work will be done by investigators.
There are a number of specialist jobs amongst the forensic team regarding their roles in the investigation. For example there will be a forensic photographer present, and any investigators specific to the circumstances of the case, for example if the crime scene was a engulfed with fire, then a fire investigator will be present at the scene.
Once the team have found any evidence which could be used in order to build a case against a potential suspect, it will be carefully collected, and placed into a specialist container, appropriate to the type of evidence. For example, if blood was found at the scene, the blood will be collected on a swab-stick, and then placed into a special container where the swab-stick cannot touch the sides of the container, therefore not contaminating the sample.
The Preliminary stage of the investigation is crucial to the remainder of the investigation, as it allows the officers and SOCO team to establish the nature of the crime, and whether a crime has been committed at all. It also allows the officers to gather their first perceptions of the case and to potentially find a suspect.
OJ Simpson Case
Regarding the OJ Simpson case, the Preliminary Procedures were not followed out correctly, to an almost disgraceful degree. Upon arriving at the scene, the First Attending Officer, Robert Riske, entered the scene and saw the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, deceased on Nicole's pathway, covered in blood.
Riske then entered the crime scene in order to determine whether there were any other bodies, and if there was any sign of forced entry, of which he found none. Riske claims that he was careful not to step in any of the blood, however he neglected at any point to set up a common approach path, meaning that once the remainder of the police team arrived, there was no set pathway on which to walk. This lead to much of the evidence becoming contaminated due to a number of officers and forensic investigators stepping in the blood of the victims.
This contamination was also due to the number of police officers and Forensic Investigators walking around the scene clearly not wear the correct footwear protection over their shoes, therefore meaning that anywhere where they stepped was contaminated, as evidence from outside the crime scene was potentially brought into the scene.
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| The body of Nicole Brown Simpson |
One of the other main blunders which occurred during the preliminary investigations was due to the presence of the media. When Riske set up his crime scene borders, he created the borders too small, therefore meaning that anyone stood directly outside the property at Bundy was able to see into the crime scene, and therefore take photographs of the bodies, as scene in the photograph to the side of Nicole's body. In order to maintain decency for the deceased, the officers at the scene went into the house and took a blanket, which they then draped over the bodies of Nicole and Ron. Upon doing this, they immediately contaminated the bodies as evidence, and anything on the bodies, as there was no proof that any evidence linking OJ Simpson to the crime had not come from the blanket, which he may have come into contact with in the past.
Also, one of the most important aspects of the preliminary investigation is to forensically photograph the scene, so that there is proof of where evidence was collected from, both for the investigation files and for the court room; however when examining the Forensic Photographs, there are huge amounts of the crime scene which are not visible on the photographs, due to the neglect of the Forensic Photographers.
Finally, when collecting evidence from the scene, it was clear that much of the evidence collected were placed into the same evidence container, therefore causing cross contamination from the evidence, causing the evidence to be un-usable in court. In some cases, wet evidence such as blood had even been collected and contained within the same bag as dry evidence such as fabrics and hair, as a result contaminating the evidence even further.
All of these mistakes led to the acquittal of OJ Simpson, therefore proving the importance of Forensic Procedure, especially during the preliminary stage of the investigation.