Part One -- Uniform Police Officers

This article is the first of three parts. I interviewed Detective Randy Mills from the Detective Division in Topeka, Kansas. He shared with me the duties of the uniform police, crime scene officers, and detectives. The first part will be about the duties of the uniform police officers. When a crime has been committed the uniform police are called to a scene. After they arrive at the scene, people are quite anxious and out of control. The uniform police have to gain control of the situation and slow things down so they can proceed with their investigation. The suspects are apprehended and taken to the police station. At that time, the uniform officers do not have to read them their rights. This is done at a later time. The uniform officers also administer first aid to anyone who needs it. After that, they separate the witnesses. They will either place the witnesses in separate rooms or in one large room with a police officer standing guard to see that they do not converse with each other. The officers need to know what each person saw without being influenced by another person's viewpoint. When uniform officers enter the crime scene, they pick a path, which is usually next to the walls, and stay on that path coming and going. They choose this path instead of the path people normally take when they enter their house because they do not want to disturb any evidence that might be there. Yellow crime scene tape is placed around the crime scene area so that people will stay away from the area. A uniform officer will stand guard and write down the activity that is happening at the crime scene. When the uniform officer is relieved of his guard duty, then he returns to the station to write his report. The officer has to write down anything that is taken from the scene or brought into the crime scene as well as people who come and go. If there is not any activity going on at the crime scene the officer still has to write down that he stood there for a certain time period, such as two hours, and that no activity occurred during that time frame. Part Two will appear next week. I will be discussing the duties of the Crime Scene Officers.

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