Different types of records may be derived from a crime scene. Once the first police officer secures and protects the scene of the crime, the next step involves recording necessary information from it. The preliminary record includes the photograph. Forensic photographers play a critical role in capturing crucial details in a scene of crime through photographs. The judiciary cannot make a visit to the scene of the crime during the court session. Photographs provide a unique body of data from the scene of the crime that can be analyzed in a laboratory. For example, they can be used to identify persons present at the scene of the crime and determine the nature of a felony.
The second recorded information from a crime scene is a video recording. Modern technology has proved to be invaluable in the field of criminology. Crime scene video records provide vivid accounts of the proceedings and activities in the crime scene. Video records present accurate information through retrievable films that take live shots of a crime scene. This fact makes them reliable sources of evidence that the judiciary can analyze in order to make just rulings. Video recordings can be used to reveal the activities that take place in the aftermath of the crime and to identify individuals or groups present in the scene.
Officers use notebooks to record the activities of a crime scene. Judges trust the information contained in the police notebooks as a true record and adopt it during legal proceedings. The law does not allow the police to make any conclusions, assumptions, or recommendations based on their observations. They make recordings based on time, activities, instruments or weapons, and persons present at the scene of the crime. Designers create the police notebooks using a scientific method. They make the notebooks feature only precise descriptions that investigators look for when making assumptions or decisions about a given crime. Police notebooks, just like other forms of criminal records, can also be used to identify the chronology of events from the crime scene, including the individuals involved in the felony.
Sketches entail other types of recorded details that can be utilized to recount a crime scene. They can be used to draw relationships of bits of evidence. Crime scene sketches may be used to show significant elements like the size of a room, distance, height, length, and other forms of measurement. The primary objectives of recorded information are to reveal activities in the crime scene, all observations, and persons present.