Scene of crime officer (SOCO)

Who are they?

Scenes of crime officers usually work as part of a team, they are called out to a crime scene so that they can collect any relevant evidence from the scene. They will be informed on what type of crime has occurred in order to give them an idea of what they may need to specifically look for, for example a murder case may require the SOCO's to collect the majority of things in order to allow a larger examination of evidence as every little detail in a murder case has value. Their job is to find and collect the potential evidence and bag & tag it using the correct procedures, this is so that it can be sent off to the forensic analysts.
The SOCO's must wear the correct gear in order to enter a crime scene, this is so that the people that enter do not contaminate the scene in any way. They must wear what is known as a SOCO suit, this suit is a white protective piece of material that covers your head to ankles so that no evidence goes on your clothes. A protective mask and goggles may also have to be worn this is for two reasons, this first being that there may be fluids or chemicals at the scene therefore priority would be to protect the SOCO from what could be potentially dangerous, the second reason is to stop the SOCO from potentially contaminating the scene with things such as bodily fluids. Shoe covers must also be worn to avoid ruining evidence or spreading anything to the crime scene that was not previously there. The scenes of crime officer would retain their role with different types of cases the only thing that would change is the content that they are needed to secure and bag up, for example in a shooting many types of evidence would be needed such as bullet casings, but bullet casing would not be needed in a stabbing as no gun would be used.

Fire investigation:

In terms of a fire investigation Scenes of crime officers would be on scene to collect all the relevant evidence relating to the fire, in all types of investigations especially fire evidence is very important as it is the building block to a solid case to take to trial. However unlike most other investigations a fire scene may present different types of obstacles for scenes of crime officers, for example if any evidence was left at a crime scene regarding the fire or as a cover up it would be very hard for the SOCO's to find evidence especially evidence that can be analysed and is in a good enough condition to be used in court. So its very important that the SOCO's complete their job efficiently as the evidence may be really hard to find or may present some difficulty during the analysing process.
According to (journals.sagepub.com) The SOCO's would be made to wear protective gear and to be very cautious when processing the crime scene because after all the area could be very unstable, this is the same for other investigations but in a fire one they ma require some other types of clothing such as a face or gas mask to prevent any potential harmful chemicals. If there was a fire scene that had been caused by a bomb their job would be to collect any items such as bomb fragments in order to be processed and re-created at a later point, this is very important that the bomb fragments be identified because the chemicals can be analysed and traced back to a potential suspect. Its potentially the Scenes of crime officers job to photograph a scene, in a fire scene they would be required to photograph and document things like the seat of the fire and the blast radius this is so that everything can be investigated in further detail after they are done with the crime scene. The involvement of the SOCO team is very beneficial to a fire investigation as they complete arguably the most important role in terms of the evidence. The SOCO's make sure that all the potential evidence from a crime scene has been discovered and then they are to collect the evidence with extreme caution. They are very beneficial because they make sure that the evidence they they must collect does not get contaminated, they must follow all of the procedure correctly so that the evidence may be used in a court of law.