Prior to me doing this job I worked for a few years in the admin type departments (they're never as busy as they say they are believe me!)at another Police Station. One day I walked into the Front Office and to my utter dismay (as a lover of chocolate) I saw a tin of Roses Chocolates on the heater. I picked it up with my big sweaty paws and said 'Which idiot put these on here? they'll melt for christ's sake!' to which the experienced old boy SOCO goes 'you pratt I was drying those! they had been left outside at a Burglary and now all your sweaty marks will be on it!'
I was mortified as I had only recently decided that SOCO was my vocation of choice, I was doing everything I could to impress our SOCO Dept and show them how enthusiastic I was. I'm surprised I ever got a job after that.
By the way I know this now renders any future moans about Police Officers not wearing gloves null and void. But I'll probably do it anyway, I was young and niave!
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Pherk! If it had been one of our SOCO's who had put unsealed evidence on a heater in a semi-public area, they would have been TOTALLY reamed! They would have been chewed out by the Sergeant, Detectives, Prossecutor and all the way up the hierarchy to Superintendant, then sent for re-training! We have an almost anal set of procedures to ensure the chain of custody doesn't corrupt the evidence. So you were right to ask,"Which twat...?"
I know that now, to be fair though he was sitting right next to it, and there was no access from the public. Nowadays we have a secure room and drying cabinet.
Just found your blog, brilliant! Will get a link up to you & carry on reading through your archives :o)
ok, now I'm confused. When i joined not so many years ago, i distinctly remember being taught not to wear gloves when handling evidence as its far better to leave my paw prints in a discrete area than to risk rubbing off the crims with my gloves.
The whole not wearing gloves business, is ridiculous if gloves are going to wipe off fingerprints then your fingerprints are only going overlay any that are there. Best advice is wear gloves and handle the item as if you didn't have gloves on ie carefully. Besides which you don't know if the item may be require for DNA testing which your sweaty palms could be contaminating.
Hope that helps, I'll be doing a good moan one of the days of common misconceptions of CSI work. Stay Tuned :)
At what point did we stop calling you chaps SOCO and start following the yanks with the CSI thing?
It just happened overnight at my nick.
You have a secure room and a drying cabinet? I'm so jealous. And yes, shocking isn't it? 2007, brand new offices, and we have nowhere to dry/prepare/examine exhibits. Great blog, by the way, keep it up! Was thinking of starting one myself, but got paranoid the PTB would find me...
I recently examined a burglary where one of the victims was a PC Trainer. She actually taught the Plods that turned up to report the crime, who then promptly put their paw-prints all over the point of entry window!
Idiots.......
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