1. Practical Crime Scene Processing
and Investigation
Greg Dagnan
Chapter 3 - Actions of the Initial
Responder

2. Learning Objectives
Identify the two goals of the police at any critical
incident.
Identify and discuss the five crime scene
objectives of the initial responding officer.
Identify the three areas that help define the initial
crime scene perimeter.

3. Learning Objectives .. continued
Explain the purpose of the crime scene entry log
and discuss its importance to the investigation.
Identify the primary rule regarding life-saving
and evidence preservation.

4. Initial Responding Officer and the
Crime Scene
Initial responding officers are not crime
scene processors.
Their actions however, set the stage for a
successful crime scene examination.
Crime scenes are not an abnormal circumstance,
they are dealt with by police as any critical
incident would be.

5. Critical Incident Goals
When presented with any critical incident,
the initial responding officer has two basic
goals. These are:
– Bring the site under control.
– Coordinate the employment of available resources.
These goals are applicable to the crime scene as
well.

6. Crime Scene Objectives
These incident goals are expressed in five specific
crime scene objectives. These are:
– Document the information provided.
– Ensure officer safety.
– Provide for emergency care.
– Secure and control the scene and all those in it.
– Release the scene to the appropriate authority.

7. Document Information Provided
The initial responder must keep track of the often
times chaotic information provided. This includes
knowing where this information came from.
Examples of the importance of this include:
– Claims by reporting individuals.
– Information that may result in investigative red
herrings.
– Suspects who acknowledge facts they should not have
known.
– All of which may be critical at some future date.

8. Ensure Officer Safety
The first responders cannot become casualties
themselves.
Officer safety issues at a crime scene include:
– Crimes in progress or suspects still on scene.
– Natural hazards that may inhibit or harm the initial
responder.
– Man-made hazards that might endanger initial
responders.

9. Provide Emergency Care.
Initial responders have a duty to act in the
interests of victims or potential victims.
Crime scene security may have to wait.
Primary rule of emergency care is :
– Life saving always takes priority over evidence
preservation.

10. Emergency Care Issues
For the sake of evidence preservation, initial
responders do not have the authority to prevent
EMS access to a scene.
They can act, in the background, to try and
preserve evidence or scene aspects as EMS
conduct lifesaving operations.
Only in cases of obvious death (e.g. putrefied
body, decapitation) should EMS be prevented
from entering a crime scene.

11. Secure and Control the Scene
Expect a certain level of chaos at the crime scene.
From those chaotic conditions, the initial
responder is charged with bringing control to the
situation.
This involves two aspects:
– Controlling all parties present
– Physically securing the scene as soon as possible.

12. Controlling Parties Present
Victims, witnesses, suspects and individuals who
are in no way involved are likely to be on scene by
the time police arrive.
The initial responder must functionally:
– Identify this group in some fashion.
– Bring them under control and remove them from the
immediate scene
– Determine as quickly as possible who is who (e.g. ID
witnesses from on-lookers)

13. Physically Secure the Scene
Crime scene integrity is very much a part of good
crime scene security.
Despite the chaos, the initial responder has a
crime scene security responsibility.
This means identifying the initial crime scene
perimeter and removing all parties from it.
Q: What defines this initial perimeter?

14. Defining an Initial Perimeter
Every crime scene is different, but there are three
factors that help the officer identify the initial
perimeter.
These factors or areas of consideration are:
– Primary focal points
– Natural entry and exit points
– Secondary scenes.

15. Primary Focal Points
Primary focal points are always obvious to the
observant officer.
They may include:
– The body or large blood pools.
– Areas ransacked or disturbed.
– Areas where evidence such as shell casings or money
are strewn about and are immediately obvious.
They are places the police are led or drawn to by
their apparent association to the crime.

16. Natural Entry and Exit Points
Natural avenues of entry or exit to these primary
focal points are also of interest.
Criminals must enter and then exit in order to
accomplish the crime.
These avenues of entry and exit often hold
significant evidence (e.g. fingerprints, shoe marks)
or may suggest possible secondary scenes.

17. Secondary Scenes
Secondary scenes are areas of interest that may
be anything but obvious.
They may be staging areas where the criminal
waited before or fled to after the crime.
They are often located on the periphery of the
crime scene and may be overlooked.
Critical observation will help identify these areas.

18. Controlling the Initial Perimeter
Once the initial perimeter is defined, the critical
issue is to physically control it.
Initially, the officer uses verbal commands to try
and remove individuals from this area. The more
chaotic the scene, the less effective this technique.
A physical barrier of some nature is the only
functional way to cordon off the initial perimeter.

19. Crime Scene Entry Control Log
Once the initial perimeter is established and
cordoned off, it is a controlled area.
The initial responding officer should then
establish a crime scene entry control log.
The crime scene entry control log identifies:
– Who entered the scene
– When they entered, when they left.
– Why they entered.

20. Crime Scene Entry Control Log
This log is used to establish the integrity of the
crime scene.
The initial log may be nothing more than notes
jotted down on a notebook, but it is an official
record that others will review and examine.
This record can help eliminate claims of crime
scene integrity errors raised by counsel at some
later date.

21. Release the Scene
Once secured and under control, the initial
responding officer is responsible for the scene
until the arrival of the investigative team.
Releasing the scene includes debriefing the
investigative team on:
– Critical observations on arrival.
– Officer actions that may have changed the scene.
– Status of security and any associated issues.
– Status of any witnesses, victims or suspects.