Before entering the scene, a SOCO must be fully equipped and wearing the correct PPE (personal protection equipment) which is a full body white suit, a face mask, protective glasses, shoe protectors (bags go over the shoes) and latex gloves. The reasons for wearing these articles of clothing is to ensure that no contamination of evidence occurs and that you do not leave any of your DNA or marks such as finger prints or foot prints behind which could be misleading when coming to analyse collected evidence. After they are 100% secure in their suit, a SOCO will then enter the scene and lay a common approach path (square plates) in order to show which way the team are to navigate around the scene with the benefit of preserving the evidence.
They then have a specialized photographer to go in and take photographs of the evidence for the reason that once evidence is collected, there is a chance you will not be able to retrieve it after analyses therefore photo's are useful to look at how the evidence was and the state of the crime scene, for example looking at blood spatter and body positioning. Once these tasks have been carried out, police tape is used to block any exits and entrances to prohibit anyone from entering the scene without the correct authorization. Following this step, a member of the team is selected to do an entry log which means anyone who enters the site, they must sign them in on a sheet by name, time, and date and then sign them out in the same way. This is to prevent any confusion is a team member is called to another scene or any complications in court. They must also prevent anyone from entering the scene who isn't authorized to.
The team will then all be signed in and enter the scene with their evidence collection kits, which include a variety of techniques, such as test tubes, swabs and different powders and brushes to dust for finger prints. They will then search for evidence, ensuring that all evidence they have collected is in the correct packaging and packaged correctly to avoid contamination, null evidence or tampering of the evidence. They will then write a specific number onto the packaging in order to locate and reference it at a later date. When they are finished in the crime scene, the selected team member of the log book will sign everyone out and the evidence will be taken back to the labs for examination. The three pieces of evidence that we know can be collected are BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL and PHYSICAL. Biological evidence is DNA from a person like blood, saliva, fingerprints and semen. Chemical evidence are things such as drugs and gun shot residue. Physical evidence are things like foot prints, weapons, and shoes. Each piece of evidence needs to be collected and packaged in certain ways in order for the evidence to be valid. For example, different surfaces that contain finger prints need to have specific powders and dusters to be able to receive top results and blood needs to be swabbed and stored in an air tight test tube to prevent it from drying out and losing the DNA.
Chemical evidence, powders for instance need to be stored in small test tubes to keep the powder all together to make it easier to analyse and to stop is escaping. Physical evidence, foot prints for example need a technique called denstone, which is mixing denstone powder with water until it is a thick liquid mix to be poured over a 3D foot print impression, with splints gently placed in the mix. When it dries and is hard the splints are used to carefully removed the model of the foot print impressions and carefully package it in a box for impact protection to stop it from breaking. It is also very important that evidence is picked up in a correct manner, for example using tweezers on small pieces of evidence to best obtain and preserve the evidence or swabbed for liquids.
The packages must also be tagged after being collected with a certain reference number and case evidence number which means the piece of evidence then has an identity and can be easily referred to when needed to be analysed or in court when it needs to be showed or looked back upon at a much later date. For example, In cold cases.
In my case of Sion Jenkins, before the police and ambulances arrived, Sion Jenkins and his friend Denise where very active within the scene that would later be a crime scene meaning their DNA would be all over the area and body. The ambulance arrived next along with police, the paramedics tried their best to revive Billie Jo, but their attempts failed and they pronounced her dead. After this, they concluded her death was no "accident" and foul play was at hand. From this, the first arriving officer, PC Bruce who was a member of the SOCO team then cordoned off the scene and interviewed Sion Jenkins, however failed to note the interview down meaning the step was not carried out properly. PC Bruce also stood guard of the door to prevent anyone from entering who shouldn't. A further SOCO team was sent out after this, and two men entered and assessed the crime scene and then took photographs of the weapon next to Billie's body, and the garden along with the fence she was painting and positioning of her body. A tent was also put up in the garden to protect any evidence from bad weather conditions and a police officer stood guard.
After this, members of the SOCO team started to collect the evidence that they could find, they collected two pieces of biological evidence, a 18 inch tent peg covered in blood believed to be the murder and later a jumper belonging to Sion Jenkins with microscopic droplets of Billies blood. It can be argued that these are also physical pieces of evidence as there is a weapon as well as a jumper. The tent peg was later analysed for finger prints but none where found. We know that these pieces of evidence must have be collected properly as they were creditable pieces of evidence in court, they would have not of been taken into consideration if they were not packaged correctly. When being tested and analysed at the crime scene, for the presumed blood, they could have conducted a Kastle Mayer presumptive blood test which is a drop of phenolphthalin reagent, a drop of kastle meyer and a drop of hydrogen peroxide added to the blood sample, which reacts with heamoglobin in the blood. If it turns pink it is more than likely blood and should be sent off for further analyses. We know in the case of Sion Jenkins, the presumed blood on the evidence was infact the blood of Billie Jo. The tent peg murder weapon could have also been tested for finger prints using a red metallic powder which sticks to metal better in order to get the best print results, however this piece of evidence was not finger printed. Other pieces of evidence that were collected and discarded from the case where the witness statement PC Bruce took and failed to write down until three days later making it unreliable and a piece of bin liner found stuffed up Billie's nose which was pulled out by neighbour, Denise which jeopardised the evidence by placing her finger prints on it. These would also have been classed as physical evidence.
Another piece of physical evidence that was closely looked in this case, was the body of Billie Jo herself. The fatal wound was examined and the whole of the body was examined to look for finger prints or other kinds of human DNA or evidence. Due to the amount of people who tendered to billies body, Sion, Denise and ambulance men, further evidence could not be found. The body, once finished with at the crime scene would have been taken away by a coroner to a pathologist to keep the evidence in best condition to be further examined.
Once all the evidence is collected and examined, it is put together into a case of presentation of findings to be presented in a court of law to bring a suspect to conviction. Presentation of findings could be notes that were made at the scene by FAO for example, initial scene assessments/witness statements. They can also be the photographs taken by the SOCO's of the scene and weapons or sketches. It'll also contain how the investigation was carried on to ensure the courts know that all procedures were carried out correctly. The crown prosecution service will put this case file together and use it to give evidence in court. In the case of Sion Jenkins, we know the case file was so well put together that the CPS were able to get a conviction and send Sion down for the murder of Billie Jo, we also know that some evidence involved in the case file was discredited due to procedure not being carried out correctly for example PC Bruce not writing down the witness statement until 3 days later.
The reason the procedures are carried out correctly are to ensure that the investigations goes underway to the best of its ability and ensure an accurate conviction in a court of law. The PPE is worn to ensure that there is no contamination of evidence placing the wrong person at the scene and the scene to which will benefit finding a suspect and will also help to get a more accurate case file for the CPS in court. As contamination of evidence can be so detrimental to a case that it can cause the criminal to be let go. For example, the witness statement in the Sion Jenkins case, the procedure for writing it down was not followed correctly as it was wrote at a later date which meant that piece of evidence which could of been crucial, was not allowed, the outcome could have been different or could of had an outcome quicker. Witness statements can be highly regarded in court as it is a eye witness account of what happened when there is not much light shed on the crime. However they need to be properly analysed as witness statements can be bias due to peoples opinions or they may have forgot or gotten confused over what they saw which makes it all the more important witness statements are wrote down as quickly as possible by a FAO.
Another piece of physical evidence that was closely looked in this case, was the body of Billie Jo herself. The fatal wound was examined and the whole of the body was examined to look for finger prints or other kinds of human DNA or evidence. Due to the amount of people who tendered to billies body, Sion, Denise and ambulance men, further evidence could not be found. The body, once finished with at the crime scene would have been taken away by a coroner to a pathologist to keep the evidence in best condition to be further examined.
Once all the evidence is collected and examined, it is put together into a case of presentation of findings to be presented in a court of law to bring a suspect to conviction. Presentation of findings could be notes that were made at the scene by FAO for example, initial scene assessments/witness statements. They can also be the photographs taken by the SOCO's of the scene and weapons or sketches. It'll also contain how the investigation was carried on to ensure the courts know that all procedures were carried out correctly. The crown prosecution service will put this case file together and use it to give evidence in court. In the case of Sion Jenkins, we know the case file was so well put together that the CPS were able to get a conviction and send Sion down for the murder of Billie Jo, we also know that some evidence involved in the case file was discredited due to procedure not being carried out correctly for example PC Bruce not writing down the witness statement until 3 days later.
The reason the procedures are carried out correctly are to ensure that the investigations goes underway to the best of its ability and ensure an accurate conviction in a court of law. The PPE is worn to ensure that there is no contamination of evidence placing the wrong person at the scene and the scene to which will benefit finding a suspect and will also help to get a more accurate case file for the CPS in court. As contamination of evidence can be so detrimental to a case that it can cause the criminal to be let go. For example, the witness statement in the Sion Jenkins case, the procedure for writing it down was not followed correctly as it was wrote at a later date which meant that piece of evidence which could of been crucial, was not allowed, the outcome could have been different or could of had an outcome quicker. Witness statements can be highly regarded in court as it is a eye witness account of what happened when there is not much light shed on the crime. However they need to be properly analysed as witness statements can be bias due to peoples opinions or they may have forgot or gotten confused over what they saw which makes it all the more important witness statements are wrote down as quickly as possible by a FAO.
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