Quality Controls To ensure every victim is receiving the absolute best investigative services possible , leaders throughout the organization must review officers work to ensure it complies with established policy . Periodically , other reviews should be made of the agency ’ s policies for the processing basic crime scenes as well as their quality control process to ensure they are up-to-date and are being followed . For example , an agency provides every officer with a patrol fingerprint kit and training to identify , develop , and collect fingerprints . Five months after the program ’ s implementation and audit revealed officers collected and submitted evidence for examination in only 7 out of the 143 ( 4.89 %) reported entering autos and burglaries . Once this problem is identified , it is important to determine if it is an issue with policy , training , supervision , or reporting and take the appropriate corrective action .
Conclusion Police agencies ’ fundamental purpose is to protect and defend the community and its citizens . As a profession , we are past the days of simple investigative approaches . Advances in forensic science have enabled agencies to better achieve conclusive evidence of what occurred at a scene as well as more effectively identify the suspect . Essentially , officers need only collect one nanogram of genetic material to positively identify an offender .
At the same time , television portrayals of police officers have led many of our citizens to expect officers to take the time to collect this evidence . The first step to meeting these expectations is to follow the fundamental steps to identifying the crime scene , scan the area to identify evidence , photograph / diagram the scene , and properly collect and store the evidence for processing .
References : Kirk , P . L . ( 1953 ). Crime Investigation . New York : Interscience Publ . Ogle , R . R . ( 2012 ). Crime Scene Investigation & Reconstruction ( 3rd ed .). Upper Saddle River , NJ : Pearson - Prentice Hall .
Detective Zack Kowalske has served with the Roswell Police Department since 2009 . The majority of his career has been within the Crime Scene Investigations Unit . He is a board-certified Crime Scene Reconstructionist , specialist in bloodstain pattern analysis and shooting incidents , and PhD Researcher and Student at Staffordshire University . He may be contacted at
zkowalske @ roswellgov . com .
22 SPRING . 2021