Collecting the evidence - PPE & First attending officer


After securing the scene to stop individuals from entering, they would talk to the first attending officer. This will be the officer who was first at the scene and therefore will inform the investigation team of what they are looking at or dealing with. This helps to prepare the investigation team as to prepare them for what they will be detailing with and investigating. This gives the investigation team an insight and allows them to prepare themselves with the equipment best suited for that crime scene and would also allow them to plan ahead. If this procedure was not put into place the investigation team may treat the case completely different to what it is.

At this stage of the investigation, this procedure was carried out referring to Madeleine being missing. The reason as to why Madeleine was missing was unknown at this stage so the investigation team had open leads to investigate and were not narrow-minded on one cause of her disappearance. This included the possibility of her being abducted, wandering off by herself and the possibility of her being killed. The first attending officer would have informed the investigation team of her disappearance and the possible causes for this. This was a beneficial procedure to a certain extent in the Madeleine McCann case because it is beneficial that other members of the investigation team were informed that a little girl had gone missing so they knew what they aimed to do which was locate her, but the first attending officers could not tell other individuals of the investigation team of how she went missing whether this was an abduction case or she had wandered off by herself. This left multiple leads of the case open at this stage of the investigation.

The next procedure set for the criminal investigation team is to wear PPE. This is personal protection equipment. This would include wearing a SOCO suit (scene of crime officer) that covers that individual’s body. They would also wear foot wear covers, a facial mask, glasses and gloves. This serves a purpose of protecting the crime scene from that officer and to stop them from contaminating the evidence, and also to protect that officer/individual from the crime scene. The crime scene for example may contain harsh chemicals that could irritate the skin, the individual needs to be protected from these.
This is beneficial to the crime because it stops that officer from leaving their traces over the crime scene and stops them contaminating that evidence from the crime scene. This procedure also stops that officer from getting hurt or harmed from being at the crime scene. If this procedure was not carried out at a crime scene, this would put the officers at risk and also put the evidence at risk from being acquitted in court.


In the Madeleine McCann case, the police officers did not wear PPE. This meant that any evidence that was present at the crime scene could have been contaminated because the police were not covering themselves therefore their traces would be all over the crime scene. This procedure was not followed when the investigators were collecting evidence from the crime scene, this could have meant that the evidence that they collected could have been contaminated and therefore inaccurate. This procedure not being carried out resulted in evidence that was collected from the apartment that the McCann’s were staying in was contaminated.  This procedure was most definitely not followed by the investigators who collected fingerprints from the apartment window of where Madeleine was sleeping. By not wearing this PPE, this could have also harmed the police if dependant on the pieces of evidence or what the scene was like, the crime scene can be dangerous for the investigation team as well as they can damage the crime scene. 




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