Chapter 9: Crime Scene Follow-Up Investigations

What should you ensure when collecting a firearm as evidence?

-Always properly secure the weapon -Remove the mag -Clear all ammunition from the chamber or cylinder -Carefully examine the weapon to identify the manufacturer, country of origin, serial number, model number, and caliber -Document this info in you field notes, as you will need this info for your database check and final report

What are some possible sources of information to look through when investigating a known suspect.

-Check of public records -Criminal history -LE reports -Field interview reports -Driving records -Traffic citations

What are some key questions that will help you assess the scene adequately?

-What is the location? -Are any weapons involved? -Has the complainant indicated the suspect's location? -How many individuals are involved? -How many officers are necessary to safely contain or control the situation? -Do you need additional services? -Do you need special equipment? -Are any special concerns or dangers associated with the call?

In the courtroom or the judge's chambers, the involved parties will usually refer to the attorneys as what?

"counsel"

What is the minimum number of photographs that should be in a photo array?

6

How far will standard camera flashes project light?

9-12 feet

The legal requirements you must meet before a jury can see or hear about the evidence; protects the defendant's rights, guards jurors from being misled or confused, and can expedite a trial.

Admissibility of Evidence

What are some possible sources for leads?

Anonymous tips, confidential sources, social media, forensic analysis, surveillance footage, and victim and witness statements.

This type of bag will prevent any communication with an electronic device?

Antistatic Faraday

Where should the scale or identifier be placed in correlation to the object?

As close to the object as possible; this avoids optical illusions that misrepresent the actual size of the object.

This type of evidence may include DNA. The most common examples are blood, seminal fluid, or saliva.

Biological evidence

This documents everyone who handled the evidence as well as when, why, and what changes, if any, were made to it. Also proves that the evidence submitted in court is the same evidence collected at the crime scene.

Chain of custody

__________ shots show the details of a specific item of evidence and must include a scale or identifier.

Close-up

At the scene of an incident, identify all people involved, including:

Complainants, victims, witnesses, and suspects

People who furnish police info about crimes, primarily for personal benefit or advantage and rarely out of a sense of civic duty.

Confidential sources

Any property that is illegal for a person to possess based on statue, ordinance, or rule.

Contraband

The location that a crime occurred; it is an area that contains evidence from the crime committed. It can be a location, place, a person or an object associated with criminal behaviors.

Crime Scene

A document that details the name, rank, and agency of each person entering or leaving the scene, the date and time of the person's entry or exit, and the reason the person was at the scene.

Crime scene log

Before conducting an investigation, what should you ensure?

Did the crime occur in your jurisdiction

A testimony from eyewitnesses who saw a person speeding would be direct or indirect evidence?

Direct

Proves a fact without an interference or presumption and which, if true in itself, conclusively establishes that fact.

Direct Evidence

What are the two broad types of evidence?

Direct and indirect

If the victim or eyewitness refuse to sign the acknowledgement for a photo lineup what should you do?

Document the refusal, and sign the acknowledgement yourself.

Anything written or printed that is offered to prove or disprove facts pertaining to the case. Examples are bank records, medical records, or a certified copy of a driving history.

Documentary Evidence

____________ prints allow fingerprint analysts to distinguish between prints belonging to either victims and witnesses, or the possible suspects.

Elimination

Anything that tends to prove or disprove the existence of a fact.

Evidence

_________ is information that is allowed in court, while _______ is the effect produced by that information.

Evidence; proof

A person who can identify another person by sight as someone involved in a criminal proceeding.

Eyewitness

True or False. The suspect has the right to refuse photographing injuries?

False

Any person you have contact with while on patrol- such as a concerned resident or any anonymous complaint- who does not necessarily generate an incident report.

Field contact

Photographs of people other than the suspect that complete the array.

Filler photographs

A continuation of the initial investigation to determine if a crime occurred; however, it can also complete the investigation by identifying a suspect..

Follow-up investigation

The objects obtained by the defendant because of committing the crime. An example would be money stolen during a bank robbery.

Fruits of a crime

This doctrine holds that the court may exclude evidence from the trial if the officer obtained it illegally.

Fruits of the poisonous tree

This search pattern is often used indoors, this is a variation of the strip/line search pattern. Searches overlap a series of lanes in a cross pattern, making the search more methodical and thorough.

Grid

This type of evidence involves distinct marks on surfaces left by tools. The most common examples are footprints, shoe impression and tire impressions.

Impression evidence

A person who is not participating in the investigation of the criminal offense and is unaware of which person in the lineup is the suspect.

Independent administrator

Requires an inference or presumption to establish a fact. An example would be eyewitness testimony that the defendant entered the victim's home around the time of the crime.

Indirect

The items used the defendant to commit the crime.

Instrumentalities

________ prints result from body residues left behind when the friction ridges of the hands or feet make contact with a surface.

Latent

The person who conducts the lineup.

Lineup administrator

A procedure that displays a group of people to a victim or eyewitness so they can identify the perpetrator of a crime and eliminate any suspect.

Live lineup

___________ is the process of analyzing evidence with a microscope to determine a possible source of origin

Micro analysis

Means mode of operating or MO, refers to how someone does something, usually repetitive in nature

Modus operandi

This lighting technique uses the flashlight at a low angle to show details by creating shadows on the surface of the impressions.

Oblique or side lighting

What are the 3 ranges of photographs?

Overall, midrange, and close-ups

A foreign substance transfers and makes readily visible ________ _________, which from from the friction ridges or corrugated lines on fingers.

Patent prints

A selection of photos compiled to show to a victim or eyewitness in a non-suggestive manner for identifying a suspect.

Photo array

A procedure that displays a photo array to a victim or eyewitness so they can identify the perpetrator of a crime and eliminate any suspects.

Photo lineup

Composing the photograph so that it depicts what you are trying to document

Photographic framing

What is the first event that should take place when documenting a crime scene?

Photographing the scene

Refers to actual objects offered to prove or disprove facts about a case. Examples could be trace evidence, biological and touch DNA, impression evidence, firearms evidence.

Physical or real evidence

A molded or embedded fingerprint created by touching an impressionable surface, such as fresh paint, bar of soap, or mud that you can easily see.

Plastic print

This investigation focuses on establishing whether a criminal act has been committed and, if so, what type and when and where it was committed.

Preliminary

What should you review before conducting a follow-up investigation?

Preliminary report

These types of records are not open to the public, including LE, and require court orders to access them.

Private records

Communications between a sexual assault counselor and a sexual assault victim would fall under what protection?

Privileged Communication

What are the 2 main types of information?

Public and private records

_________ __________ are documents that need examination to verify that they could be evidence.

Questioned documents

This case ruled that it is unconstitutional to search a cell phone without a search warrant unless there are officer safety concerns or exigent circumstances.

Riley v. California

This rule forbids anyone who will testify from discussing any aspect of a case with anyone but the involved attorneys.

Rule of sequestrian

_________ presentation occurs when an independent administrator presents individual photographs to the victim or eyewitness one at a time.

Sequential

if the judge sustains the question, should you or should you not answer the question?

Should not

Oblique lighting is also known as?

Side lighting

____________ presentation occurs when the independent administrator presents a group of photographs to the victim all at once, at the same time.

Simultaneous

This search pattern usually used outside by one person. The searcher begins at a certain point and walks in increasingly larger circles to the outermost boundary of the search area.

Spiral

This search is usually used outside by several people; it divides the search areas into lanes. then one or more people search each lane by moving in both directions, examining all areas.

Strip/line

A witness statement that tends to prove or disprove facts about the case. It includes observations from LE officers, experts, and other witnesses.

Testimonial evidence

What are the 3 types of direct or indirect evidence?

Testimonial, physical or real evidence, and documentary evidence.

Provides the basic concepts and rules of evidence that may be used in a criminal or civil proceeding.

The Florida Evidence Code (Chapter 90)

This doctrine holds that if you execute a search warrant that you believe to be valid, and a court later determines that the warrant has a legal error, the court may still admit any seized evidence.

The good-faith doctrine

What is the purpose of an investigation?

To determine what happened during an incident, identify and locate the suspect, and develop enough evidence to establish probable cause to make an arrest.

what is your second priority with a crime scene?

To search for, identify, document, collect, and maintain the physical evidence.

What is your first priority with a crime scene?

To secure, protect, and preserve the scene to avoid contaminating the scene.

Human hair, textile fibers, glass, and paint chips would all be considered what type of evidence?

Trace

This type of evidence is small quantities of material transferred from a victim or suspect to each other or to a crime scene.

Trace evidence

Evidence that can blow or wash away is called what?

Transitory

When collecting drug paraphernalia, package sharp objects, such as needles or syringes, in puncture-proof packages clearly labeled with the words "__________ :____________"

WARNING: SHARPS

This search is used for vehicle searches, both indoors and outdoors, or a large area. Divides the area into 4 different sections and search each area using one of the other patterns.

Zone/quadrant

This substance is a more potent version of fentanyl?

carfentanil

The basis for most criminal cases is primarily ___________ evidence.

circumstantial

A ____________ is anything containing a mark to convey a message.

document

Florida law states that it is a _______ to alter, destroy, conceal, or remove any record, document, or thing with the purpose of impairing its truth or availability in a criminal trial or investigation.

felony

Protecting and securing the scene begins when you arrive and ends when you release the scene to an _________ or from law enforcement custody.

investigator

Crime scene perimeters should be ______ rather than _______

larger; smaller

The ______ shots show the relationship between the evidence items within the scene.

midrange

Examples of ________ evidence can include blood, footprints, and tire impressions, or trace evidence, such as hair or fibers.

perishable

Testimonial evidence is generally less reliable than _______ evidence.

physical

During a showup, do not move the potential ________ to the victim.

suspect

What are the 3 types of Physical or real evidence?

1. Fruits of a crime, 2. Instrumentalities 3. Contraband

What are the 3 factors for admissibility of evidence?

1. The officer must obtain the evidence legally and preserve it properly. 2. The evidence must be relevant to the case. 3. The evidence cannot be unfairly prejudicial, confusing, or based on hearsay.

What are the 3 basic functions of evidence in court?

1. To prove or disprove a crime 2. To support or undermine other evidence 3. To help determine an appropriate sentence

You have the authority to ____________ any person who, after receiving a warning, crosses an area marked by crime scene tape.

arrest