Criminal Investigations

This assignment focuses on the importance of crime scene documentation and the way evidence should be collected and packaged for transportation and preservation.

For our purpose, throughout the course, we will use a city called Centervale as our locale. The city has a population of seventy-five thousand. It is outside a major metropolitan area with a population of two million.

Centervale Police Officer Michael James is the first officer to arrive at the scene of a bank robbery. The bank employees tell Officer James that the bank robber wore a mask and carried a gun and when he entered the bank, he fired once at the ceiling. The bank robber was not wearing gloves, and while inside the bank, he touched the front door and Miss Richardson’s teller counter. Miss Richardson put all the money from her drawer, along with a dye pack, into a paper bag the bank robber brought with him. Then, the bank robber ran out, and one of the customers watched him enter a vehicle. Just before the bank robber entered the vehicle, however, the customer saw a small explosion in the paper bag, which resulted in a purplish cloud. The customer also noted the license plate number and the description of the vehicle.

In at least 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your responses to the following questions:

• What evidence could be immediately available to the investigators?
• What evidence may be found later when the suspect is identified and arrested?
• Should a sketch be created while documenting the crime scene?
• What steps would you take to document the physical evidence?
• What steps would you take to collect the physical evidence?
• What steps would you take to you package the evidence to preserve its integrity?
• What kinds of things should be photographically documented at the crime scene?
• What could be some of the issues or concerns in this investigation?