When is it a Crime Scene?
By Mayra Martinez, 28th Oct 2011 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsCrime
People are often confused about what constitutes a crimes scene and when they should call in professional help to clean these scenes. I hope to help answer some of those questions.
When do you call us?
What defines a crime scene? When should professionals be called in? Are crime scene cleanup companies called only when someone dies?
When the average person thinks of crime scene cleanup, they imagine a murder or a suicide with blood splattered everywhere, something you would see on ‘Dexter’. In fact, while we do clean murder and suicide scenes, we also clean scenes where no one has died. Any major traumatic event could necessitate a professional coming in and cleaning the scene. A person who is shot and lives, for instance, is going to bleed out more than a person who dies instantly. Often there’s no crime committed at all. An unattended death may not be discovered for quite some time. The task of cleaning up such scenes falls to professionals in the biorecovery business.
Most often we’re called in by family members to attend to a scene, but sometimes it’s the landlord or business owner who calls in our services. Lay people often expect law enforcement or the medical crew to “take the blood with them”, but that isn’t their job, and in fact, after they leave there could be an even bigger mess. Fingerprint powder, crime scene tape, and even empty wrappers from the emergency medical team’s equipment could be littering the area. Furthermore, law enforcement is not allowed to endorse one company over another, leaving a lot of people in a fog about what to do, who to call.
That’s where we come in. Our job is to try to restore a little bit of normalcy back to your home. And while we’re on the subject, did you know that our services aren’t specific to houses and office buildings? We also work outdoors, for instance in the case of a train versus pedestrian or a contaminated swimming pool. The back seat of a police car or taxi can get quite contaminated, and is often targeted for special cleaning. Jail cells, as well, may have need of biohazard material removal. In fact, biohazards are not limited to just blood. Any bodily fluid can be contaminated, including blood, tissue, vomit, sputum, urine, semen, and feces.
The contamination doesn’t necessarily have to come from a human, either. Animals are huge vectors for spreading disease. Hauntavirus is spread by the dried urine and feces of deer mice. An unknowing person goes into an old, seldom-used shed or garage to clean, and while sweeping up the mess, small particles of dust infected with the dried up rodent droppings are inhaled.
Hoarding animals can lead to other disease, as well, such as toxoplasmosis, which is also transferred through feces, this time that of the cat, and is very common.
Remember reading about bubonic plague in school? We’ll it’s still around. In fact, a woman here in Oregon was diagnosed with bubonic plague in 2010. It’s not as uncommon as people might think. Thankfully, it is treatable when caught early.
I’m not trying to scare people or cause a panic. My goal is to make people aware of what circumstances professional cleaning is warranted. Better to let your homeowner’s or car insurance pay for us to come in and clean your scene, than to take a chance of infecting yourself or your living space.
And most important, the last thing you need to be doing after the death or traumatic injury of a loved one is cleaning up. That’s a time for friends and family to gather around and support one another. Leave the cleaning to the professionals.
Comments
29th Oct 2011 (#)
Now that, was a cool article!
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29th Oct 2011 (#)
Why, thank you. As a fitness instructor, you might like some of my martial arts humor at http://mayramm.posterous.com One's titled 'Haganah Home' and one's called 'The Real Karate Kid'
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29th Oct 2011 (#)
Mayra. Very good article. I am an aviation mishap (Crash) investigator. And the clean-up from a mishap scene is much like what you describe from a crime scene.
Difference being that we have to do our investigation in the presence of all the bio-hazards. We cannot allow anyone to clean it up until our instigation is completed let they spoil the evidence.
But it is probably just a s dangerous for you the clean up crew because you have to come in direct contact with potential bio-hazards known and unknown. I look forward to reading more of your writing.
Jeff
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29th Oct 2011 (#)
And who are these professionals to clean the crime scene? What I see before cleaning the crimes scene - it should be investigated first and who will be the responsible to investigate on the crimes scene? as Cleaning the crimes scene without the formal investigation first done about the crimes is also a crime...
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29th Oct 2011 (#)
Ppruel: Of course the scene has to be released by LE first, if it's a crime scene at all. Companies like mine aren't in the habit of cleaning a scene before an investigation, although I'm sure some crime syndicates have their own crime scene clean up crews!
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5th Nov 2011 (#)
Thank you Mayra for doing the job for all of us. I am living in South Africa by the way, The Murder Capitol of the world. I cannot even imagine how hard that must be, I am an ex-cop.
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6th Nov 2011 (#)
Thanks, Tranquilpen. I couldn't imagine being a cop in South Africa. BTW, do you know how to moderate comments? I want to get some of this spam off my page. I don't mind if a person makes a relevant statement then creates a link back, but not these long spam articles like the ones above and below your comment!
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