How Police Investigate Homicide
The first thing an officer should do upon arriving at the scene of a potential crime is to check if anyone might be hurt, call for appropriate backup and assistance, and administer first aid if needed. The most important thing that needs to happen upon arriving at the scene of a potential crime is to preserve the crime scene as much as possible. Once law enforcement is aware that a killing has occurred, an investigation is started to determine the cause of death, to identify the victim(s) and suspect(s), and to determine the circumstances that led to the death.
Police are responsible for the investigation of homicides and bringing all of the evidence to the prosecutors. Some agencies are large enough to have specific investigators who gather crime scene evidence and detectives who work exclusively on homicides. Image: The Minneapolis Police Crime Lab. Authored by: Tony Webster. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Minneapolis_Police_Crime_Lab_(19137251083).jpg. License: CC-BY 2.0
Securing the scene is important because officers need to be able to gather as much evidence as possible as well as identify witnesses in order to ensure they gather all possible relevant information about a case (Howell, 1999). This is true regardless of the type of crime that has occurred. Evidence gathering can begin once the scene is safe and secure and anyone who is injured has received proper medical attention. All potential evidence, including any weapons, clothing, bullets, fingerprints, body fluids, need to be noted, numbered, photographed, and collected as part of the case.
Records of everyone who was at the scene, including medical personnel and other law enforcement as well as bystanders, need to be recorded, and those people need to be interviewed by the investigating officers. If medical personnel were there before law enforcement, they need to be interviewed about anything that was moved and where they were in order to account for footprints and other evidence that were not part of the crime. If the victim was still alive at the scene but near death, then an attempt is made to get information from him or her about what happened and who committed the crime. This is called a dying declaration, and it can be used in court to give a dead victim a voice (Howell, 1999).
A suspect would be taken into custody if present. If the department is large enough to have a homicide investigation team or a crime scene team, they would be brought in to continue collecting evidence. Some agencies are too small and may contact the sheriff’s department or state investigation agencies for assistance if the case is going to be complicated. If the investigation might involve the violation of federal laws, the FBI might also be brought in to assist with the investigation. If the victim was dead at the scene, the local medical examiners or coroner would be brought in to assist in the investigation and, in all cases of homicide, the victim will be taken to the morgue for an autopsy to determine the official cause of death.
All of the evidence collected at the scene is sent to the appropriate labs and is used as part of the case by the prosecutors. Law enforcement will work with the district attorney to ensure the accuracy of the evidence. The district attorney will also determine if there is enough evidence to bring a case against the suspect and what the charges should be (Howell, 1999).