First Attending Officer

The first attending officer the the first member of the police to arrive at the scene of the crime, he will have a variety of jobs he will have to do upon arriving at the scene. The first being an initial assessment of the crime scene in which he will give a general over view of the crime and the scene from what he can see, this initial assessment is then given to the scenes of crime officers when they arrive as this briefs them as to what to expect from the scene and allows them to start thinking about what crime has taken place so they know what evidence to look for. If a first attending officer enters different types of investigations then their role would not change as they would still have to do through the same procedures, however their responsibilities could change as people may need different types of help when they are dealing with an emergency at the scene.


OJ Simpson:

In the OJ Simpson case where he allegedly killed Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman the first attending officer (FAO) was Robert Riske who was a member of the police force at the time. As the first attending officer Robert Riske had a variety of duties such as securing the crime scene using crime scene tape, have a general overview of the scene so that he can tell the scenes of crime officers when they arrive, do an initial assessment of the scene and provide support and or dealing with any emergencies in and around the scene. For the most part he did his role correctly, however he and the officer who arrived shortly after him (Miguel Terrazas) made a huge error which affected the whole case. Robert Riske did not secure the perimeter of the crime scene correctly which resulted in the media getting to the crime scene, without thinking about contaminating the evidence Riske and Terrazas placed towels over the bodies to stop the media from being able to photograph them, this meant that any evidence that was found on the bodies could not be used in court.