Observation and Evidence Handling
This domain tests how accurately you observe, how well you record, and whether what you handle survives a courtroom challenge.
Observation
Describe systematically from head to toe: sex, apparent age, height, build, hair, complexion, clothing, marks, voice, gait, accent, and direction of travel. For vehicles: make, model, colour, plate, damage, occupants. Record immediately: memory decays and reconstructs. Note the conditions that affect perception, such as distance, light, obstructions, stress, how long you actually saw the person, and the time.
Evidence handling
- Preserve the scene: touch nothing, tidy nothing, restrict access, cordon, and record anyone who did enter.
- Record each item with time, exhibit number, description, finder, location found, condition and seal number.
- Chain of custody: every transfer is signed and dated with the purpose. A break in the chain weakens the prosecution case.
- CCTV: export a copy early because systems overwrite within days or weeks; preserve the original, note copy details, seal the medium and sign.
- Separate what you saw yourself from what someone told you. Hearsay must be attributed to the person who said it.
- Notebooks are contemporaneous, original, bound, with no loose pages and no later insertions without a signed note.
Worked example
You find a knife in a washroom. Photograph it in place if permitted, note time and location, cordon the area and record who entered. If it must be moved, wear gloves, lift it by the handle, place it in a paper bag, seal it with your signature and the time, and log it in the OB. Paper, not plastic, for anything damp or bloodstained, because plastic traps moisture and degrades forensic value.
Traps
Picking items up to 'tidy'; plastic-bagging damp exhibits; rewriting a notebook; adding evidence later without a signed annotation; recording suspicion as fact.