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May 04, 2014 Editorial

It is becoming increasingly alarming to see the number of people who crowd crime scenes in this country.  The latest in a series of bungling is the kidnap-murder of East Coast businessman Rajendra Singh whose body was found in Le Repentir Cemetery.  To see the number of curious onlookers mingling with investigators calls into question the knowledge and training of police first responders to crime scenes.  It also raises the issue of criminals going free because crime scenes are contaminated by persons unauthorized to be there in the first place; these include both police and civilians.
The most important aspect of evidence collection and preservation is protecting the crime scene.  This is to keep the pertinent evidence uncontaminated until it can be recorded and collected.
The successful prosecution of a case can hinge on the state of the physical evidence at the time it is collected.  The protection of the scene begins with the arrival of the first police officer at the scene and ends when the scene is released from police custody.
It is no secret that when some off-duty members of the Force hear about a crime in progress as in the Middle Street shooting or of a body being discovered as in the Singh’s case, they tend to converge on the scene.  Invariably what happens is that these police ranks with no visible identification wander about the scene and in the process trample on possible traces evidence.
It is not unlikely that a few unscrupulous ones may even be looking to personally benefit from a keepsake or two regardless of the investigative value of these items.  All persons coming into contact with the crime scene should be cautioned about the possibility of scene contamination.
Every crime scene should have a contamination sheet that lists the name, date, and time of each officer’s arrival and departure from the crime scene.
Any police force worthy of its name should ensure that all its ranks receive intensive training on how to properly protect crime scenes since any member can be put into the position of first responder to a crime scene.
There is no indication that the uniformed police rank who comes on the scene making written notes about the condition of the scene when he first arrived and after the scene has been stabilized.  This task seems to be left to the detective investigator who is operating in a scene already contaminated by both authorised and unauthorised persons.
One important fact is the ignorance of those persons who contribute to making the investigators’ work more difficult.  This does not seem to be making an impression on the administration of the force since there is no effort made to educate its ranks and the general public of their role and obligations to secure and protect the integrity of a crime scene.  Any actions taken should be reported to the investigators.
If the force is to be taken seriously then there must be a policy which deters the presence of unnecessary personnel at the scene of a crime since they can cause problems in protecting the scene.  Only those people responsible for the immediate investigation of the crime, the securing of the crime scene, and the processing of the crime scene should be present.
This can be achieved by having only one entrance/exit into the crime scene which should be ringed with crime scene tape and covered by a rank with a notebook to take names, examine identification and verify that people are authorised to enter the crime scene.
It borders upon the farcical to see persons who are ostensibly police officers in a variety of mufti and unconcealed weapons walking casually about a crime scene.  Maybe it is time for the force to introduce a type of identification which authorised officers are required to wear openly at a crime scene to avoid confusion and to serve as an access control measure.
It can also minimise the allegations of theft which are becoming the norm whenever police ranks have unrestricted access to crime scenes.

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