First Responders

In order to handle the emotional toll of working with difficult cases, it is important to practice self-care such as getting outside for fresh air, exercising, and relaxing.
 
Transcript: "How do you handle the emotional toll of working with difficult cases? I was in Special Victims for two and a half years and the number one piece of advice that I say is you have to get yourself moving. When you're outside of the job, you have to spend time in the gym or Outdoors, breathing in fresh air, and relaxing and re-centering yourself. It's something that's so critically important for your own mental stability. Either you're working a difficult case or whether you're just in a stressful situation in general, you need to take care of the physical to take care of your mental and your emotional."

Technology plays a huge role in investigations, particularly in terms of the data found on cell phones. Cell phone data can be used to exonerate people and also show how guilty they are. It can also be used to gather evidence from cameras, such as video footage of a crime.
 
Transcript: "In terms of what role technology plays investigations for me. It's the information that's found on a cell phone. There's so much incredible data when it comes to GPS data texting records. Call logs location data. There's so much incredible data when it comes to making a breaking a case. I recently had a burglary case where the ex-husband was alleging that his wife had broken into the home. Home and little did he know she had been recording with her cell phone him locking her in and her trying to escape through the window? It completely made the entire case. I had another case. Where the woman said that she was raped by five men and it turned out that she was actually buying drugs at a friend's house and had been scrolling through her phone the entire time that the alleged rape took place. So a cell phone can exonerate people and it can also completely show how guilty they are as well. I love the information that you can find in cell phones and also cameras cameras. They make or break cases, is there video footage of the crime? Technology plays a huge role in investigations?"

Most detectives that collect forensic evidence such as fingerprints and DNA do not analyze it themselves; they send it off to a crime lab or specialist to analyze it. DNA is often found even when people wear gloves, as it can be transferred from skin cells, hair, fibers and other discarded materials.
 
Transcript: "In general in most departments most detectives that collect forensic evidence like fingerprints and DNA, don't analyze it themselves. They send it off to their crime, lab depends on the size of the department. Some departments are smaller than others and they may have to analyze the fingerprints themselves, but most send it off to another specialist that specializes in fingerprint data and or a crime lab that actually test the DNA and DNA is critical. When I was in special, All victims their DNA is so sensitive. That just touching someone, you get transfer skin cell DNA. So a lot of criminals are smart nowadays and they wear gloves. But DNA is still found, believe it or not, from hair dropping from fibers things that they may have warned, people discard things with DNA all the time."

The correct answer is to follow up on all leads, depending on how busy the department is and what the caseload looks like. Some cases are more obvious, and not all leads need to be followed up on but it is best practice to follow up on them all.
 
Transcript: "Very often in many crimes, there are no Witnesses and no video. So you don't have much of a lead to go on those cases. Often get penned it out until further leads come in. But when you do have leads, you should really follow up on all of them. The correct answer is follow up on All Leads, depends on how busy you are. What your caseload, like some departments are extremely busy, and there, Their staff is thin, so some leads may get overlooked. Some crimes are very obvious, like the person. Knows who did it. They saw them do it or they have video of them doing it. And it's very obvious not and not All Leads. May not necessarily need to be followed up on, but the correct answer for court is you follow up on All Leads."

Some factors to consider when determining the motive behind a crime include personal history with or relationship to the victim, evidence at the scene, statements made, behavior displayed, financial situation, what is to gain or be lost, personal or emotional issues, and ideology.
 
Transcript: "Some of the factors that you're trying to consider when you're determining the motive behind the crime is what's the person's personal history with or their relationship with the victim? What's the evidence at the crime scene? What is the evidence showing you? I recently had a burglary where the complaint was falsely. Reporting that his ex-wife was breaking into his house. We're actually he he had cut the window himself and the evidence at the scene didn't support the victims statement. So he ended up getting arrested for falsely, reporting and some other charges. So what are the statements that are made? What's the behavior that's being displayed? At the scene? I mentioned, what's the relationship? What is their financial situation? What's to gain? What's to be lost? Personal or emotional issues and what's their ideology, like, is this a hate crime is? What's the religion things like that? Those are all factors to be considered in the motive behind the crime. Usually, it's something emotional or Financial in in my experience. All right, one"

The first step of gathering evidence at a crime scene is to secure the scene, then take photos and/or film it, collect and preserve evidence, interview witnesses, and document who was present.
 
Transcript: "The way you go about Gathering evidence at a crime scene, is very first thing that you want to do is secure the scene. So, it needs to be wrapped up tight, so that no one goes in and out, and no one tampers with the scene. The next thing is, you want a photo it and maybe even film it if you're a department, has that capabilities. So, you want to preserve the scene as it was. When you showed up, the third thing is collect and preserve evidence. Is there any video of the incident is there DNA? Is their It's and then are there any Witnesses? Hopefully the cops did a good job of collecting their information and keeping them present and if they didn't then maybe they got their phone numbers and you can follow up with any Witnesses and take their statements. You want to memorialize anything that they saw heard or smelled any observations that they made? You want to memorialize it on paper on a statement. The next thing is you want to document who Was there with you who was collecting evidence and where it was found, those five things should help you get through a successful investigation. There are other things that you can do as well, and if you can do it and you think of it, if you can think it should be done, you should probably do it."