The shows make it look easy, and in some cases, perhaps it is. But many times the scene is a mess, the crime happened in multiple locations or outdoors, and the story isn't clear. How do they really work a scene?
There are several essential elements that comprise working a crime scene. Note-taking, sketching, photographing, and gathering evidence are separate pieces that all tie together to help an investigator paint a picture of what happened.
Taking detailed and thorough notes is vital because a case may not go to trial for years and an investigator's notes will be all he (or she) has to refresh his memory about what happened and what he did at the scene. Good sketches include dimensions, direction, and vital items in the area, such as furniture, evidence, or bodies. Photos (or video) of the scene can be useful in placing objects in perspective and in relation to other objects. They can be of locations, people, and evidence, and are of particular value when demonstrating shoe prints, fingerprints, wounds, and bloodstains-things that cannot really be brought into a courtroom. Gathering evidence requires careful consideration. Evidence that is overlooked usually cannot be recovered later, but an investigator doesn't want to collect everything in sight, either. Proper collection, identification, and packaging is vital to maintaining the integrity of the evidence.
Determining the identity of victims and suspects (and sometimes witnesses) can be done with a variety of techniques. Palm and fingerprints are unique to an individual and are frequently left at crime scenes. There are three different basic categories of prints: Plastic (when an impression is left in a soft material), contaminated prints (made when there is a foreign substance n the finger and it is pressed onto another surface, leaving a visible print), and latent prints (visible and invisible to the eye but developed using powders, chemicals, or alternative light sources). Other ways of identifying people include handwriting analysis (document examination), forensic anthropology and odontology, laundry marks on clothing, unique jewelry or tattoos, eyeglasses, medical devices, dentures, blood type, and DNA testing. All of these can be used to help an investigator identify a person.
If he has done a good job and is lucky enough to have found good evidence, the investigator can put it all together and figure out what happened to whom, based on the information he recorded at the scene.
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