Who is responsible for processing crime scenes?

The responsibility for processing crime scenes primarily falls to a crime-scene investigator. These professionals are specifically trained to collect, preserve, and analyze evidence found at a crime scene. Their work is crucial in ensuring that all physical evidence is properly documented and handled, maintaining its integrity for further examination in the forensic laboratory.

Crime-scene investigators employ a variety of techniques for evidence collection, including photography, sketching, and using tools to collect trace evidence. They are skilled in recognizing what types of evidence may be relevant to the investigation and ensuring that it is cataloged in a way that can be useful for law enforcement and legal proceedings.

While detectives may oversee an investigation and witnesses can provide testimonies, neither of these roles involves the direct processing of the crime scene where technical evidence collection occurs. Forensic attorneys may engage with the evidence later in the judicial process but are not involved in the physical processing of crime scenes. Thus, the crime-scene investigator is the key figure responsible for this crucial aspect of the forensic process.