| The size of each crime scene differs from one to | | | | bystander who will find his or her way inside restricted |
| another, and police must be ready to determine the | | | | areas. |
| size and boundaries of a scene. This problem is not as | | | | After the crime scene is secured, the first-arriving |
| easy at it seems. A crime scene may be a small | | | | officer establishes what is known as a security log. A |
| bedroom, an entire mansion, everything on the estate, | | | | security log is a sign-in sheet that must be signed by |
| even an entire subdivision. | | | | any and all persons at the scene. It is a form of crowd |
| At the bare minimum, the crime scene involves: | | | | control that facilitates the investigation in many ways. |
| - The exact place where the offense occurred | | | | For the most part, it limits the amount of people who |
| - Places from where the scene can be entered and | | | | must be examined when their fingerprints and shoe |
| exited | | | | prints are found. If crime scene investigators can be |
| - Places of key pieces of evidence such as the body | | | | eliminated, the fingerprints or shoe prints may indicate |
| in a murder, a safe or drawer in a burglary, or an entire | | | | who the offender is. |
| building in a suspicious fire | | | | Upon arrival, a crime scene investigator (CSI) starts by |
| A crime scene can be sectioned off from access | | | | doing what is known as a walk-through examination. A |
| using crime-scene tape, barriers, cars, or even | | | | walk-through examination refers to the processing of |
| policemen standing guard. Only personnel who are | | | | getting a feel for the scene and organizing an |
| qualified to process a scene are allowed access. This | | | | approach to gathering evidence. You may have seen |
| restriction many times is harder to accomplish. A | | | | this on any of the CSI TV shows. During this overview |
| victim's family, friends, or neighbors may be an | | | | examination, the CSI normally does not examine in |
| emotional wreck and thus difficult to remove from the | | | | detail the particular pieces of evidence. Rather, he |
| scene. Then there are members of the press and | | | | looks at the crime scene as a whole before |
| paparazzi who have sneaky ways to gain access to | | | | embarking on the boring work of evidence analysis |
| a crime scene. Finally, there is the curiosity of a | | | | and collection. |