Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)…

Within all crime scenes one of the procedures put in place to prevent cross contamination is for SOCO’s along with other officers to wear personal protective equipment. This equipment covers the entire body minimising the chance of cross contamination from that individual onto the piece of evidence. If cross contamination occurs, there is less chance that the evidence will be used in court which may lead to an acquittal of the suspect. PPE is not only used to minimise cross contamination but also to protect the individual whom is collecting the evidence along with their personal clothing.  PPE consists of:

• Full body suit
•  Gloves
• Goggles  
• Shoe covers
• Face Mask

The full worn body suit is used to ensure no fibres from the offices/SOCO’s clothing or hairs from their person are transferred into the crime scene. This suit is also worn to minimise the contact from their person to evidence at all times. The suit is worn also in order to protect the personal clothing of the individual minimising the destruction of the item from chemicals or objects located within the scene. Gloves are worn so that fingerprints from the officer/SOCO are not placed upon different pieces of evidence which would either destroy previous biological evidence (fingerprints) or contaminate the prior evidence. The goggles are needed within the investigation to protect the individual’s eyes from any chemicals or objects which may possibly damage the eye itself. Shoe covers are needed to ensure no footwear marks are placed within the scene from the offices/SOCO’s which could potentially destroy previous footwear marks or contaminate them. Finally the face mask is used in order to protect the individual from any harmful chemicals/gases that may be present within the scene. 

Personal Protective Equipment within the OJ Simpson case…

Within the murder investigation of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman there are many reports that the officers who attended did not follow this procedure. The officers who attended the crime scene did not wear any of the vital personal protective equipment. This meant that the officers could have potentially contaminated the evidence located at the crime scene. Robert Riske (FAO) when entering the crime scene did not place any of this equipment on however proceeded in using Nicole’s household phone to call for back up. When using the phone Riske had no gloves on and contaminated any evidence upon this item. Therefore any evidence found upon the item could not be used within the court of law as contamination would have occurred. As none of the officers who attended the scene wore any sort of PPE it allowed vital pieces of evidence to be questioned by OJ’s defence within trial stating that any evidence could have easily been contaminated therefore they are questionable throughout the entire investigation. 

The image above shows Mark Fuhrman who was one of the lead detectives within this murder investigation at the scene of the crime with no PPE on. From the image we can clearly see a large pool of blood Fuhrmans foot is closely located next to this evidence however no shoe protectors have been worn, this possible could have caused cross contamination. This image is a clear example of how this procedure was not correctly followed within the murder investigation suggesting that officers could have potentially contaminated vital pieces of evidence.