How to Secure a Crime Scene in 5 Minutes

You arrive at a crime scene. What is the first thing you do? After locating the victims involved and providing emergency care, you need to properly secure the perimeter of the crime scene. Traditionally, first responders would use caution tape. Although this method may be effective at keeping people out of the area, it doesn’t create any type of privacy barrier to conceal the crime scene from onlookers with cameras.

The most effective way to secure a crime scene is with the SRN 1000 Premiere Barrier System. The SRN 1000 is a system of convertible screens and tripods that can be assembled in a matter of five minutes. The system is so lightweight that it only requires one person for assembly, making it convenient in matters of emergency. The system is GSA certified and used by Law enforcement and civil service agencies in over 40 states across the USA.

Assembling the SRN 1000 is extremely easy. The system includes three steel tripods, four privacy screens made out of all weather, 500 denier fabric, three 15 pound ballast bags made out of 1000 denier, all weather fabric, three beacons and four tethers. The ballast bags are used to secure the system in place and withstand winds up to 30 mph.

Now back to the crime scene. Before assembling the barrier system, it is important to identify your perimeter. It is always best to secure a larger area than you need. Although it is extremely easy to add additional walls to the barrier system, it is much more difficult to expand your perimeter once more emergency responders arrive on scene, or as traffic begins to build. It is just as easy to shrink your perimeter by removing barriers once you’ve mapped out the area. It may be easier to block off a larger area using caution tape and use the barriers to protect more sensitive areas of the crime scene as shown below.

Another reason you want to secure a larger area is so you set a boundary across the entirety of the crime scene. If you extract evidence from outside the area you have secured, that evidence could be considered questionable in court. The floor is the most common place to find evidence, yet it poses the greatest potential for contamination. Securing the perimeter of an emergency with the SRN Barrier System will help shield evidence from bystanders who can potentially corrupt the evidence.

Once the system has been secured around the perimeter of the crime scene, you will need to designate an area for bystanders. Make sure that the barrier system is blocking the plain of view from this area.

If the weather isn’t cooperating, our barrier system can be converted into a canopy in a matter of minutes. The canopy can be used to provide examiners with a shielded barrier to give care to victims or to house evidence or necessary equipment from the rain and wind.

Any on-duty police officer could be the first responding officer to a crime scene. That is why it is important that each law enforcement car is equipped with a SRN Barrier System. The system doesn’t take up a lot of space. All components fit within two, high quality travel bags. If each car is equipped with a barrier system, it is easy to connect systems to create a larger barrier.