Procedure Statement
This exhibit outlines the step by step implementation of procedures for evidence collection under the policy for blood samples collection. Also, it presents procedures, as well as guidelines used to maintain integrity of chain of custody of evidence which U.S. wet blood forensic service officers collect, record, store, and dispose of. Therefore, based on these, a scene can be reconstructed to determine whether the crime was committed as well as identify the suspects involved, hence, leading to the successful completion of the investigation.
Statement of Purpose
The chain custody refers to documentation of evidence alongside the trail taken by it from the day of collection to submission. Given the importance of evidence in a legal or crime case, maintenance of the Chain of custody is important for various reasons. The chain of custody proves the integrity of evidence submitted to trial (Robinton & Hoyer, 2017). Generally, it is important to maintain a chain of custody because otherwise, evidence submitted in a court of law will be inadmissible due to doubts about its legitimacy. Therefore, maintenance of the chain of custody is specifically more important to the examiner and the court.
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The examiner might face the challenge of deciphering meaningful information from a piece of metadata presented as evidence. However, the challenge in extracting useful information from data does not necessarily imply that evidence submitted is insufficient. In this case, the chain of custody indicates where the useful information might be found, as well as the specific people responsible for every stage of evidence handling. In this way, the examiner can create an exemplar to compare it with evidence and confirm the findings.
Last, maintaining chain of custody benefits the court in the sense that the jury can have proper discernment of the case. There is a possibility of having evidence dismissed due to missing links. In this case, the chain of custody helps the court avoid dismissal of evidence since links can be traced and proper judgement of the evidence done.
Terms and Definitions
This section provides definition to different terms used in the collection of blood evidence from a crime scene. Three primary terms were used for the exhibit, they include LEO, Service officer, and evidence.
A Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) refers to a service employee who works under the authorization of the law to enforce criminal statutes, serve warrants, search and make arrests, as well as carry weapons.
A service officer refers to a designated officer of the Law Enforcement or the Division of Refuge Law Enforcement. The service officer has proper training of how to collect and handle evidence as well as be a custodian to the evidence.
Evidence refers to material that is collected during an investigation for purposes of proving that crime or violation of the law occurred. Evidence can either be documentary, testimonial, or physical.
Applicability and Scope
People impacted by the policy include service officers or investigators, the first responders, and law enforcement officers. The impact of the policy, which gives guidelines on procedures of evidence collection, is vigilance. The three people mentioned above are pushed to be more vigilant about their duty and responsibility to ensure that crime is deciphered and fair trial given. For instance, if a service officer misses a stage in maintenance of a chain of custody, the policy gives the court the power to dismiss submitted evidence due to the insecurity about its integrity. For the case of the law enforcement officers, the policy outlines procedures to be undertaken to legally obtain an arrest warrant. Skipping one of the required procedures renders any warrant for an arrest illegal regardless of whether the victim of arrest is guilty or not.
Specific Responsibilities
a. Crime Scene Protection
The crime scene should be cleared in the sense that people found around it should be told to leave the scene. Second, the scene should be demarcated with a yellow tape indicating restriction of movement within the area for involved enforcement officers in the investigation only.
b. Evidence Collection
The first step of evidence collection is labelling of evidence. The step involves labelling a container such as a paper bag with the identification number, date, time, location, and evidence number (Christian et al., 2000). The evidence number written on the evidence bag should be unique. In this case, description of the evidence should include clothes of the victim, the carpet fabric, location of the blood stain, and specification whether the stain was wet or dry.
If the blood stain is wet, the stain material is placed on a clean piece of paper and allowed to dry before transit to a laboratory or the evidence holding area. In most cases, a drying rack is used where the piece of paper with the sample is put on the floor of the rack and allowed to dry. The stain should be allowed to dry naturally without exposure to artificial heat. After drying, the rack should be cleaned with 10% bleaching solution.
c. Evidence Documentation for Identification
The next step is documentation of evidence. The stain is documented as it was found through photography. During photography, the scale and identification label for the stain evidence is included, a location photograph is also added, and last, a photograph of related evidence is also taken and documented.
d. Chain of Custody Form
Chain of custody form is attached in the Appendix A.
e. Storage of Evidence
Blood stained items should be stored between 60 and 75 degrees centigrade, also at a humidity lower than 60%. Additionally, the storage place should be secure and dry. Extreme heat should be avoided, including direct sunlight (Lee &Tirnady, 2003).
f. Submitting Evidence for Forensic Testing
The labeled paper with the dried blood stain should be collected, and put in a labeled container. Second, the paper put on the dried object should be folded while also tracing any evidence that might have fallen on the paper. Last, the paper should be folded and put on transit for forensics.
References
Robinton, M., & Hoyer, P. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,685,057. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Christian, C. W., Lavelle, J. M., De Jong, A. R., Loiselle, J., Brenner, L., & Joffe, M. (2000). Forensic evidence findings in prepubertal victims of sexual assault. Pediatrics, 106(1), 100-104.
Lee, H., & Tirnady, F. (2003). Blood evidence: How DNA is revolutionizing the way we solve crimes. Basic Books.
