Members of the Investigation Team (Audit Trail)

In a criminal investigation each member of the investigation team have a role to play and they must all contribute to the investigation in order to get the outcome of being able to solve the case, if one member does not do their role correctly it can affect other members of the investigation team as well as hinder the investigation itself. In the OJ Simpson case this is exactly what happened which resulted in OJ not getting jail time for the crime he so obviously committed, the following will be describing the roles and responsibilities of the members of the investigation team in the OJ Simpson case and whether any members of this team were responsible for securing an audit trail of the evidence.

Scenes Of Crime Officers
The link above will take you to the roles and responsibilities of the scenes of crime officers and how they contributed to the OJ Simpson case. The scenes of crime officers in most cases (including the OJ Simpson case) are the first members on the investigation team to start the audit trail, this is usually done when they first collect the evidence and write what evidence they have collected in the exhibits log, which is then transferred to the chain of custody so that everyone else that receives the evidence collected is able to sign the chain. In the OJ Simpson case the scenes of crime officers did not do their role to the standards that are required which resulted in the audit trail being hindered right from the very start of the investigation, The scenes of crime officers had one role in the OJ Simpson case which was to go to the scene where the crime took place so that they could collect any evidence their that was relevant to the case, once they collected the evidence they had to correctly label and tag each piece of evidence, then the evidence could be sent for further analysis. In reality, what really happened was a disaster, the SOCO team did not wear the correct PPE nor did they collect the evidence in the correct way to stop contamination, this resulted in a lot of the evidence that was found being contaminated which resulted in that evidence being useless. They where also very lazy when labeling the evidence, some pieces of evidence where missing labels and the once which had them were not done correctly which resulted in a lot of confusion when the forensic analysts were sent the evidence to examine as well as the exhibits log. There was evidence sent to the analysts that were not documented in the exhibits log which meant that that evidence could not be analysed and used in court, this meant that on the first transaction of the audit trail evidence was already lost or unusable because the scenes of crime officers did not do their role correctly. The SOCO team did secure part of the audit trail as half of the evidence collected was in fact labelled and correctly wrote in the exhibits log, however, it was not completely secured as more than half of the evidence that was collected (as well as the evidence that was missed such as the bloody fingerprint) was either not collected correctly or not labelled correctly, this resulted in the audit trail not being secure as this evidence had to constantly be removed. To contribute to the security of the audit trail the scenes of crime officers should have correctly bagged and tagged the evidence as well as correctly filled out the exhibits log stating every piece of evidence they have collected.

Forensic Scientist/Analyst
The link above will take you to the roles and responsibilities of the forensic scientist/analyst and how they contributed to the OJ Simpson case. The forensic scientist/analyst are usually the second member of the investigation team to receive the evidence in the audit trail, they role relies heavily on the scenes of crime officers as the forensic analysts can only work with what has been provided by the scenes of crime officers this means that if the SOCO team do not do their role correctly then it results in the analysts not being able to do their role correctly as evidence that is contaminated, missing or not put onto the exhibits log cannot be used as evidence in court. In the OJ Simpson case there was one main forensic scientist who was Henry Lee, along with the rest of his team which helped him to examine the evidence found by the scenes of crime officers. His main role in the investigation team was to examine and analyse the evidence found at the scene and then pass his findings onto the detective (Mark Fuhram) so he could piece together the evidence and link OJ to the crime scene. His job was made quite difficult thanks to the scenes of crime officers as a lot of the evidence that was sent to Henry Lee was contaminated in some way which meant that he could not analyse the evidence, this meant that it could not be used in court. There were even problems with the uncontaminated evidence as it was very poorly collected and the tags on the evidence bags were not correctly filled out which resulted in a lot of problems for Henry Lee and his team. Henry Lee struggled to keep a secure audit trail due to a lot of the evidence being either packaged and labelled incorrectly or the fact that the evidence itself was contaminated due to the way in which it was collected, this meant that Henry Lee and his team was constantly having to remove evidence and change the exhibits log which resulted in the audit trail not being secure. The forensic analysts in the OJ Simpson case contributed to the audit trail in the way they should have, all evidence passed through to them was correctly analysed and resealed once the examination was complete so the evidence could be stored.

First Attending Officer
The link above will take you to the roles and responsibilities of the first attending officer and how they contributed to the OJ Simpson case. The first attending officer is not tasked with securing the audit trail, however the notes that they make at the scene when they first arrive is seen as a very important piece of evidence which is almost always included within the audit trail. In the OJ Simpson case 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. This was a huge blow as it meant that no evidence could be collected from the bodies by the forensic analysts, Riske also did not provide the SOCO team with the evidence about the scene that he had written (initial scene assessment) which meant that because of him lots of evidence was unable to be collected which resulted in the audit trail not being secure as evidence that the forensic analysts expected to arrive to them was not there.

Forensic Photographer
The link above will take you to the roles and responsibilities of the first attending officer how they contributed to the OJ Simpson case. The forensic photographer involved in a criminal investigation is not tasked with securing the audit trail as the evidence is never actually passed or transferred to them, they do however, provide evidence (in the form of a photograph) for the case which is then sent through the audit trail to the forensic analysts along with the other evidence collected by the scenes of crime officers so that it can be examined. In the OJ Simpson case there was not one specific individual set with the task of photographing the evidence that was found at the scene. Instead that job was put onto the scenes of crime officers who upon finding a piece of evidence photographed it and recorded the evidence. Unfortunately this resulted in confusion as not only was the evidence poorly collected and recorded, but the photographing of the evidence was also poorly done. As the pictures where not directly tied to the evidence a lot of pictures were lost which made the forensic analysts job a lot harder as they had less work to be able to analyse the evidence effectively. Due to this a lot of evidence found could not be used in court against OJ Simpson. To contribute to the security of the audit trail the scenes of crime officers should have correctly bagged and tagged the evidence as well as correctly filled out the exhibits log stating every piece of evidence they have collected.

Detectives
The link above will take you to the roles and responsibilities of the detectives and how they contributed to the OJ Simpson case. The detective involved in a criminal investigation usually does not receive the evidence itself so they are not part of the audit trail, however, what they do receive is the results of the examination that was done by the forensic analysts so well as a copy of the exhibits log so that they can know what evidence has been collected as they can use this information to aid them in their investigation. there was only one main detective which was Mark Fuhrman. He had a very big part to play in the investigation and also found a key piece of evidence that placed OJ Simpson at the crime scene, the piece of evidence was the glove that he found when unlawfully searching OJ's house without a permit, it was later believed that their was a chance that he planted the glove in the house as he was openly racist but this was never confirmed. His role in the investigation was to keep tabs on the other people in the investigation (and give orders) and to try to link the evidence found to OJ so that he could use it in court. During the investigation Mark Furhman was making notes about the scene when he spotted a fingerprint on the gate leading to the house, he wrote in his notes that the fingerprint was present but did not tell any of the scenes of crime officers that it was there which resulted in a vital piece of evidence (as it could of determined who the killer was) not being collected and sent to the forensic analysts to be collected.