Crime Scenes Crime scene investigation is the meeting point between science, logic and law. Processing a crime scene is and long and tedious process and is the job of crime scene investigators (CSI). CSI has the responsibilities of collecting, documenting, preserving, reconstructing and presenting evidence. It is their job to examine any physical evidence that could remotely shed any light on what happened and who is responsible. There are no typical crime scenes, evidence or investigative approaches and every crime scene should be approached in a systematic sense. According to Robert R. Ogle Jr., a crime scene search is defined as a systematic, methodical search for any physical evidence at a crime scene. When a crime has been committed, law enforcement team members use many scientific methods, along with their natural intuition and skill, to discover who is responsible. In modern crime scenes, finger and shoeprints, hair, blood, bones, and even DNA are used to help solve the puzzle and catch the criminal. Criminals find newer, cleaner, and smarter ways to kill, while the criminal investigators and forensic scientists, find newer, cleaner, and smarter ways to catch the criminal. Investigating a crime scene can take hours, sometimes days. Scene processing is the term applied to the series of steps taken to investigate a crime scene. Although the methods and techniques may differ between the experts involved, their goals are the same: to reconstruct the exact circumstances of the crime through the identification of the sequences of events and to gather physical evidence that can lead to the identification of the perpetrators. The first step in processing a crime scene for clues and evidence is to make an accurate survey of the surroundings and carefully evaluate the situations, meaning take a long hard look at the surrounding area. A search for evidence starts with effective protection of the crime scene. The officers guarding the perimeter of the crime scene are responsible for preparing a chronological log of events as they occur at the scene. A chronological log is typically a time-based log that documents when an officer enter and leaves the scene. Once the scene is under control, it is advisable to notify those in command positions within the police agency of the circumstances of the crime. The command at a crime scene is often hectic. The crime scene investigator must be able to bring all this mayhem to a screeching halt and take command of the situation. Bring order to chaos and organize and operate the working of the crime scene as if it were a well rehearsed and choreographed Broadway production. One thing must be remembered above all else, that is, an incident occurred here! A human life may have been taken, or at very least, a crime has been committed! By organizing, controlling, and working the scene using the proper methods, the likelihood of a successful resolution will stand a much better chance of being accomplished. Most law enforcement agencies specify that the first officer to arrive at the scene is in charge until a patrol sergeant arrives. Typically the tasks to be performed by the crime scene investigation team start with the systematic search for evidence. The main purpose of a search is to look for evidence of what happened during the crime. Investigators should not rush to pick up evidence since its signification may be destroyed in doing so, marking evidence serves to identify it. Investigatore take other precautions too, like wearing gloves so their own fingerprints don't end up on the evidence. Each piece of evidence that they collect is stored in a separate plastic container before taking it into the crime lab to study further. Evidence must be packaged to avoid breakage, loss, or contaminated in transit. There are many different ways to package/store evidence, such as boxes or plastic containers. The crime lab processes all of the evidence the CSI collected at the crime scene. When the lab results are in, they go to the lead detective on the case. It is the duty of the first officer at the scene of a suspected crime to “contain” it. Standard regulations require responding officers to detain witnesses and other persons at the scene. these officers secure adequate information about the identity of all the persons found at a crime scene: their names, addresses, and telephone numbers; and their employers’ names and business addresses. Criminalistics includes the identification of physical evidence and the findings of its origin. This individualization of evidence often requires that physical evidence collected at a crime scene be matched with a known standard of evidence or a control. Transporting physical evidence to a laboratory, to a place of storage, or to the prosecutor’s office or the courtroom is the responsibility of the investigator who found the evidence. The officer in charge should take a final survey of the scene before relinquishing control of the crime scene area. An inquiry in the view area of the crime scene is also standard practice. Superior officers supervising the criminal investigation often assign additional personnel to an extensive neighborhood canvass in order to find a witness. Field notes are memoranda made by the investigator during an investigation. The place and time to obtain data for a preliminary investigative report are at the scene during the initial investigation. The Preliminary Investigation report includes things such as the victims name and where the event took place. So that the scene can be shown in its original investigation condition, an investigation should not disturb the scene or any objects at the scene before photography. Videotaping is pictorial storytelling, and it offers compelling reasons for investigators to use it. These were just a few steps that take place throughout a crime scene investigation. I believe that the process the officers go through with the crime scenes are overall effective, I believe that because they’re doing just fine with it at this point in time. In the future at some point in time, the crime scene investigation process can be updated/improved due to the fact that people are getting both smarter and cleaner with the crimes that they do. All the information I came across while writing this essay sounds like a difficult and hectic process, but I’m sure to a professional it’s not so much difficult.