Who worked together?

In order for an investigation to be accurate and efficient everyone within the team should work together by sharing information and carrying procedures out correctly. This team consists of, First attending officer, lead detectives, general police officers, scenes of crime officers, forensic scientists and the exhibit officer. By the team working together in an efficient manner this would lead to a secure and accurate audit trail of evidence and ultimately provide a strong case for the prosecution team. The team needs to ensure that all evidence collected is secure and transferred to the correct teams, that the crime occurred is eventually closed and a conclusion is made. This team is responsible for the entire investigation and protecting and securing any evidence that is collected.

Within the OJ Simpson investigation surrounding the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman the team did work in an efficient manner however not to the extent of which they should have due to the fact they did not follow the correct procedures which eventually led OJ Simpson to be acquitted of all charges. The people who played the biggest roles within this investigation were:

• Robert Riske (FAO)
• Phillip Vannatter (Lead Detective)
• Mark Fuhrman (Lead Detective)
• Tom Lange (Lead Detective)
• SOCO's 
• Forensic Scientists 
• Exhibits Log Officer 

As previously discussed the team should have worked in an accurate way however did not fulfill this duty. Although all of the members worked together by providing information and instructions the information provided was minimal causing confusion within the case and instructions were poorly instructed due to the high media presence. Taking in all these factors we can state that this is one of the reasons OJ Simpson was acquitted from this double murder enquiry. 

Tom Lange

Robert Riske was the first officer to arrive at the scene however his shift was over and passed the case on to Phillip Vannatter. Vannatter was briefly informed of what occurred at the scene however the standard of information passed on was poor. As Riske was not present upon the arrival of the SOCO’s the information gave to them was minimal. This shows the communication occurring between detectives, however this was not an efficient procedure and would have been more effective if information gave was extensive rather than very brief.  

The team working together can be seen within the communication between lead detectives and the SOCO’s upon their arrival. Once arrived at the scene SOCO’s where instructed to collect as much evidence as they could  rather than carry out procedures which needed to be done prior to the collection of evidence for example, initial scene assessment, common approach path etc. Vannatter instructed officers to quickly collect evidence this was down to the fact detectives wanted to shut the scene down and close it off as a “crime scene” due to the high media presence outside. By doing this evidence was not correctly packaged, certain pieces of evidence was not logged into the chain of custody log and key pieces of evidence became contaminated and not viable within a court of law.