PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)

Another procedure which would be carried out at a crime scene is that the scenes of crime officers, and others entering to examine the crime scene would put on personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is designed to protect those who wear it from the crime scene, as there could be bodily fluids, weapons, drugs or other substances present, which could potentially pose a risk to the individuals within the crime scene. Personal Protective Equipment is also used to protect the crime scene from those entering it, who can potentially contaminate the scene, for example with fibres from their clothes, or fingerprints when they handle a piece of evidence.

Personal Protection Equipment is composed of a full body suit with a hood, a face mask, goggles, shoe protectors and gloves. The body suit is worn to prevent any hairs or fibres being transferred to the crime scene and to protect the clothing and also the individual wearing it from anything that could transfer onto them and potentially be harmful. The facemask is worn to prevent the individual from inhaling any toxic fumes and to prevent any saliva from contaminating the scene. The goggles are worn to protect the eyes from potentially getting anything in them that could damage them. The shoe protectors are worn to protect against leaving any shoeprints at the crime scene and also to stop anything that could be on the shoes being transferred into the crime scene or substances such as blood or semen being transferred from the scene and onto the shoes. Finally the gloves are used to protect the hands and to stop any fingerprints being left behind at the crime scene.

In the case of the murders of Nicole brown and Ronald Goldman, the majority of personnel who entered into the crime scene disregarded the procedure of wearing Personal Protective equipment. The first attending officer – Robert Riske, called for back up at the scene using the house phone, without wearing gloves. Therefore contaminating this with his fingerprints. Also the majority of the officers who arrived at the scene throughout the night did not wear PPE, but were involved in touching items and examining evidence at the crime scene. As this procedure was not followed it meant that vital evidence was possibly contaminated by the officers and others at the scene, as this occurred, it allowed OJ Simpson’s defence in court to raise the question about how reliable the evidence was, if all officers and individuals had followed the procedure and worn PPE, this doubt would not have been able to be created.