Initial Scene Assessment

Initial Scene Assessment…

The initial scene assessment is a procedure put in place in order to make sure no evidence is missed or manipulated in anyway. This assessment is carried out by SOCO’s within this assessment sketches of the crime scene should be drawn along with detailed notes of what they can visually see. Within these notes should be descriptions of any evidence that is located within the crime scene. These notes and sketches are often provided to the prosecution, defence and jury allowing them to get a visual representation of what the initial scene looked alike along with where key pieces of evidence where located. Within these sketches a layout of the property or area should be drawn depending upon where the scene occurred. This is a key procedure within any investigation as it allows officers and investigators to try and understand the events prior to the incident.

Along with the extensive notes and sketches photographs of the scene should be taken. Photographs should be taken before anyone enters the crime scene. The reasoning behind this is evidence or objects within the scene could be moved when examining or investigating the scene, therefor to get a realistic visualisation of the scene initial photographs of the scene should be taken. Upon the collection and analysation of evidence close up images should be taken, this is also done to place the evidence within a certain part of the scene. It also allows the jury, prosecution team and defence team to clearly see the evidence found within the crime scene. This whole assessment is often used within evidence as it is used within court in order for the jury, prosecution, defence and the judge to get a clear visual representation of what the crime scene looked like.

Initial Scene Assessment within the OJ Simpson case …

This initial scene assessment was not carried out by the SOCO’s upon site however taken by each individual lead detective within the investigation. This led to many pieces of evidence missed out, confusing notes and sketches. Overall this led to a bad visualization and representation of the scene within court. As the officers did not share information that they had gathered the notes did not make much sense. The SOCO’s were instructed by Riske to collect the evidence very quickly rather than taking notes, photographs or sketches prior to the evidence collection. This was because there was an extended delay of SOCO’s arriving at the scene due to the call made by Riske very late on after the incident was reported. Another factor as to why the SOCO’s where instructed to not note take or photograph the scene was because there was a high presence of the media within the crime scene, and Riske was more focused on clearing the scene and closing it down rather than correctly and accurately collecting the evidence and processing the scene.

The photographs were taken by a crime scene photographer at 3.25am. However the original call to report the incident was made at 12:13am. This meant that 3 hours and 12 minutes went by before Riske or any other lead detective called for a photographer or the team of SOCO’s to attend. Photographs should have been taken prior to the collection of evidence meaning the collection of evidence occurred after 3:25am. This time phrase led to suspicion that evidence had been manipulated or tampered with within the investigation. The detectives instructed the photographer to only take generalised pictures of the scene and to wait until the bodies had been removed by a coroner. This also led to a suspicion of planting or manipulating evidence as no detailed photographs were taken of the scene. Without the view of the whole crime scene the jury, prosecution, defence or the judge did not get a clear visualisation of what the crime scene looked like prior to the collection of evidence. 

From the image above, there are clear footwear marks present within the blood. However due to the detectives instructions, the photographer did not take any of these images that could have been vital pieces of evidence. The image above is just one of the few images taken as a "general overview" from the crime scene photographer on site.