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Evidence Contamination Case Study

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In many cases emergency medical services have been the fault of evidence contamination either at the scene of the alleged crime or improper handling of a victims clothing during medical care. The contamination by EMS providers is not intentional, but merely overlooking the obvious and not paying attention to detail. Whenever two objects come in contact with each other, each will be altered or changed in some way (Maniscalco & Christen, 2011). Some examples that Maniscalco & Christen (2011) describe are bombing victims who may have chemical traces on their clothing, pieces of debris from the incident location on or imbedded into their skin or body which is essential to evidence collection. It becomes necessary for EMS personnel to be mindful of the theory of exchange in the evidence process. …show more content…
However, at least within the last 10 years the availability of such training in my area is essentially not existent. Not to mention, the training the newer EMS providers are receiving today has been extended but does not include the necessary crime scene preservation or management training. Any crime scene can be contaminated or altered by first responders who carry contaminants into the crime scene (Maniscalco & Christen, 2011). Contaminants by EMS personnel for example can be as simple as fibers left behind from their uniform, equipment or bags to leaving medical gloves or other non-biohazard trash. It must be stressed to first responders to limit access to crime scenes to those necessary, this will decrease the number of contaminants entering the

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