How good crime scene photos help tell the story of the incident

Submitted by: Hilary Romig, PoliceOne Contributor

It is the investigator’s job to relay the events of the crime in the best possible manner. Crime scene photos help to tell a story. A good set of photos can help those involved in the investigation find out what took place, and also help outsiders such as a jury see the whole picture, so to speak. Since crime scene photography is essentially retelling the scene of the crime, there should be nothing missing from the story. For example, if an investigator were photographing a burglary scene, the point of entry should photographed, followed step by step (to the extent possible) of everywhere the suspect went from there. Even the smallest hint of action should be captured on film. If the suspect broke in through a window and knocked over a stack of books, those books should be photographed as well as the window. Every photo should link together creating an overlap effect.  Overlapping means that each photo connects with each other. For instance, if the first shot includes the window where the suspect entered, the next photo should include the window, but focus on the next object. From there, the trail should continue, all the while including one object, from the previous photo. This is crucial for putting the piece of the puzzle together.  Another key factor when it comes to crime scene photography is the need for urgency. As soon as the police are involved, the scene should be photographed. This is done promptly so that no potential evidence is disturbed.  Each element of the scene should be captured in film as well. Going back to the example of the thief, the books in the stack that were knocked over should be photographed. Not only to link the photos together, but the books themselves should be photographed. This is the case for each step along the trail. If an object as small as a pencil is knocked off of a table, that pencil should be photographed.  For certain cases, aerial photos should be taken. This brings the whole scene into one shot.  When it comes to taking photographs at a crime scene, the investigator should take as many photos as they can. It is best to have too many photos rather than not enough. After all, once the scene is cleared, evidence is removed and the original crime scene no longer exists. It is best to capture each element in the most detailed way possible.

Lessons From the Past

A new generation of cops (many of whom entered service during the post-9/11 spasm of public support for law enforcement and the military) are now experiencing some of these things for the first time. It may feel new to them, but their retired cop fathers and grandfathers would recognize the conditions immediately. Those warriors from the ‘60s and ‘70s would have some advice for their modern day brothers and sisters of the Thin Blue Line. Here are 15 thoughts they might share. Add your own — especially if you were on the job in the 60s and 70s — in the comments area below.
1. Wear your vest. We didn’t have them back then, and we lost some brothers as a result.
2. Look out for each other. Always important, but even more so when the family is under attack.
3. Be aware that small things can turn into big things, fast. Don’t forget that the ‘65 Watts Riots started with a simple DUI stop.
4. Go armed — heavily — always. You never know when the next SLA shootout will go down on your watch, or when you’ll run across the wrong crowd while off duty. Pack a War Bag with extra mags for the car, carry a backup gun (or two), and always carry a reasonable fighting gun off duty
 5. Maintain operational security. Deny useful information to the enemy.
6. Avoid habit patterns. Habit patterns make you an easy target for ambush. Mix it up.
7. Harden your house. A police station must withstand attack. Glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows offer no protection from bricks, bullets, or bombs. Put auto barriers in place. Move desks away from windows, secure the perimeter, control access, and change landscaping/architecture so you can see who’s approaching the door.
8. Conduct vehicle searches — on your own cars. When you return to your vehicle (duty or private), do a visual check for sabotage (lug nuts? tires? brake lines?), tampering, or explosives before you touch it.
9. Don’t be afraid of a tactical retreat. Don’t push a bad situation. Fall back, regroup, and choose the battlefield.
10. Know your counter-ambush tactics. Learn them. Perfect them. Use them.
11. Train in officer hostage tactics. Work out a plan with your partners. Never surrender your gun. No more Onion Fields.
12. Radio discipline. Never make a stop without calling it in. Ever.
13. Hone your crowd control and riot tactics. You’ll need these skills when a First Amendment event becomes a riot.
14. Be self-reliant. When the system is stressed, there may be no backup available. Back in the day, there was no SWAT, no K9, and no helicopter — you did it yourself. Get all the help you can, whenever you can, but don’t forget how to get things done by yourself, if necessary.
15. Check your six. Remember, you’re not the only hunter out there.

Six reason that tactical disengagement and redeploy is not running away.

Cops are mission driven. When they engage they are in it to win it. They hate an order to stand down. Our heroes hold the line, damn the torpedoes, and say “nuts” to surrender. 

Retreat is not an option. 

Or is it?

Completing any mission — whether it be a field contact of a suspect, a hostage situation, or a lengthy investigation — means not only winning but also depriving your target of a victory. One strategic move is to disengage. 

Thinking about a retreat brings to mind the famous attack rabbit scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the knights scatter at the frantic command "Run away! Run away!" Running away and tactical disengagement and redeployment are polar opposites because one is a result of poor planning and the other is a winning strategy.

The law enforcement ethos of embracing the battle will always remain preeminent and the courage to walk into chaos will always be a necessary character of a police officer. Disengaging for a tactical objective is not contrary to that character. Making sure you have an avenue of retreat is no less important than scanning for opportunities of cover and concealment. 

We also need to recognize strategic retreat as an element of an adversary's strategy as well. Being lured into a foot pursuit, or engaging a suspect who is pretending to comply is part of our need to understand the concept. Even a snake must recoil before striking again!

Turning our minds to tactical disengagement and redeployment requires a plan. If we have the opportunity to think (and often we only have time to react) consider the advantages of tactical disengagement:

1. It creates time to observe, gather assets, and plan for redeployment.
2. It may get your adversary to let their guard down, making your redeployment more effective
3. It may prevent unacceptable loss or injury 
4. It allows redeployment to a more favorable time, place, or emotional state
5. It can thwart an effort by a numerically superior adversary intent on surrounding or flanking you
6. It can avoid an unnecessary battle that can be won by diplomacy. 

The reality of many of our engagements is that we often think of our warrior spirit only as the tip of a bayonet. Battles are won by strength and strategy. Tactical disengagement and redeployment is a strategic tool that should be in our tool kit. 

A question for you

You are on patrol and stop a car on the freeway for speeding. Upon approach the driver refuses to look down the window. Ignores you. What do you do?

Five ways to insure your safety as a police officer

You’ll never hear a fighter pilot argue against putting a premium on safety measures on a combat mission. Those fliers are about as aggressive a group of warriors as you might meet, but safety is wired into them as much as their lethality in battle.  Yet law enforcement officers — and I’m just as guilty as anyone — uniquely ignore basic safety principles. We do it daily. The argument — specifically to my most recent column but more broadly in common conversation among cops — is that talking about safety first is effectively “neutering our best warriors and demotivating them.” Tell that to a fighter pilot. Yes, there are myriad differences between the fighter pilots and police officers, but no one can argue that both are not warriors. I contend that you can be both safe, and be a warrior. The good news is that no matter where you are in your organization — from patrol to brass — it’s never too late to begin. Here are five ways to get you started. 1.) Emphasize Driver Training We change cars — sometimes nightly — with no concern on training. Let me understand this. Roadway-related incidents have been the leading cause of death, injuries, and lawsuits for almost two decades yet we will throw the keys to just about anything with wheels to an officer without considering any type of training.  We would never give an officer a new or different gun without training, and statistically most of us will never shoot that gun in the line of duty.  We drive a car every day and rarely train in the dynamics of that car.  The newest squad cars are as different from any late-model-fill-in-the-blank cruiser as semi-automatic pistols are from revolvers. But because “it’s just a car” we just don’t treat the differences as being serious.  We must place an emphasis on training with the car we operate, just as we train with sidearm, cuffs, and every other tool we use on the job. 2.) Conduct Blended Training Now that we understand that training is needed, what kind of training is effective?  We’ve thought for years that a blended training — combining skills and decision making — was the most effective. Thanks to California POST we now have research to prove it.  Training that does nothing but build skills will certainly do that but we have to integrate an equally important component: the brain.  No one reads a death notification and says to themselves, “If only the officer knew how to brake a little better.”  It’s not our hands and feet that gets us in trouble but what is between our ears. We must train and we must focus on both skills and decision-making.  3.) Learn the Physiological Effects of Stress When our heart rate jumps to above 140 beats a minute, our body will adjust. Period.  We have to know what to expect. Emergency response runs — or even the stress of a call you are going to — can cause tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, and a host of other issues.  We can mitigate the effects by doing our combat (autogenic) breathing but ultimately we must know the effects so we can expect them and deal with them.  Read Alexis Artwohl's excellent book Deadly Force Encounters and make yourself familiar with what can happen to us under stress and how we can be safer in the process.  4.) Study Emotional Survival We must be vigilant to the incidents killing our officers — from ambush attacks to vehicle incidents — but more officers die every year at their own hands than all of the line of duty deaths combined.  Poor health, corruption, and marital issues are a direct consequence of the failure of our profession to prepare our heroes behind the badge for life as cops.  Read Dr. Kevin Gilmartin's excellent book called Emotional Survival and take steps today to survive. This training is important in the basic academy but it is a must throughout our careers.  How about if every agency leader reading this decides to give all of their current officers a day of training a year on this subject? Everything from financial classes to family relation classes will help those behind the badge. Think that might make a difference? I do.  5.) Remember Your Family I’ve written some difficult and some easy steps to take now in order to be safer. Maybe you've thought, “I don't need any of this. I’ve been fine up until now.” That may be so, but what if tomorrow you aren’t? What if tomorrow your kids don’t have a dad or your husband doesn’t have a wife anymore?  While it’s true you could spend an entire career ignoring these basic safety principles and be fine, it is also true that many have not been fine. We are a profession that has many lessons taught to us in blood.  For the sake of our family and to honor those before us, please consider learning those lessons.  Conclusion Think about it: We don’t wear reflective vests because we need to be “covert.” We don’t wear ballistic vests because it’s hot. We don’t wear seatbelts because we want to get out of the car fast — which makes no sense when you’re going 60 mph because the only way you’re coming out of the car at 60 mph is because you’re not wearing your seatbelt. Many in our profession do all they can to be safe and they do not compromise what we are called to do — they are warriors.   If we pull up to a school and hear gun shots, we run in to stop the violence, giving very little thought to what could happen to us. No one will — or should question that — but if we run 90 mph to a call without wearing a seatbelt, we all should question that. I submit that if we are going to put our lives at risk then it needs to be worth something. Unfortunately, we all too often ignore some basic principles that can help us be safer. Pleases consider these tips that I believe can make you safer today. Please consider coming up with those that may directly apply to your agency. Post them around and discuss them.   Let us be as safe as possible so when we are called to be that warrior, we will be here and ready.

Prepare your family for off-duty encounters

Submitted by:

Aaron Weaver

While at my home, my wife and I were loading our two children in her vehicle when a large white male on a motorcycle stopped in the roadway in front of my house. I asked if he needed assistance with something, at which point the man became belligerent and began yelling obscenities. 

I then informed him he must have us mistaken for someone else and asked him to please leave. 

The man continued, so I motioned my wife away and she went to the porch — our kids remained in their car seats in her car. 

I at this point moved closer still remaining on my property and, was now telling him he needed to move along. I never let him know that I was a police officer — not yet anyway — and the man took this as a challenge and began to get off his motorcycle, telling me “YEA! I’ll move right along up to you!”

At this point my wife had retrieved my K-9, Ranger — a dual purpose GSD — and was now attempting to keep him restrained on the porch. I now informed the individual that I was a Police Officer and prepared for a tussle and moved onto the street to be on level ground. I also said that if he did indeed want a problem to move to the side of the road and I would assist him. 

He then jumped back to his bike and told me to “keep hiding behind my badge.”

I have never met or dealt with this individual — I live in a different area than where I work. The point of this is always be prepared for potentially dangerous encounters. Prepare your family.

I had never really sat down and prepared my family for this — we talked about it, but never set fourth a plan. 

I learned that it needs to be done.

Let your family know that after these incidents to always be on a look out head on a swivel if you will, neighbors too — especially if you have children. 

Always be vigilant: taking out the trash, checking the mail, watering the yard. 

Check vehicles to ensure no tampering has occurred. Obviously, inform your supervisors, and if possible, your brothers and sisters in blue patrolling the area in which you live. I am not saying all this as if you are unaware but sometimes it’s good to have a reminder. 

Stay safe, stay fit to fight, and hold the line.

Yet another use for duct tape.

Edward Warner
NYPD, New York

During my 25-year career I used to carry a long strip of duct tape wrapped around a tiny mag-lite flashlight. 

Whenever I had to go into an apartment building or multi-family dwelling where I had to be buzzed in by the resident, I'd place a piece of the duct tape over the locking mechanism to defeat the lock and prevent the door from being locked.

I did this in case I needed assistance during an escalating situation or violent encounter. My back up officers would be able to gain entry quickly, and without being hindered. Once inside the apartment, I'd engage the dead-bolt lock then close the door behind me, leaving it ajar. This was done for the same reason: quicker response to my calls for assistance, just in case. 

I hope you find this as helpful as I did.