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Permalink Reply by Brian Parmelee on June 15, 2010 at 12:43pm

How we break up duties all depends on the fire situation. Our "standard" fire situation we will have two deputy fire marshal's respond. One will do most of the interviews and the other will take pictures and do the dig out. When I am doing the dig out I like to take my own pictures so I can capture my view point of what I am seeing for futher reference. When someone else takes the pictures that are usually not in the same exact position I am in so the view that is captured will be different. For example when I have had other take pictures and I have asked for a very specific viewpoint the pictures have not always come correctly. Now that we have digital camera's I will always review the pictures to make sure that everything is captured.

I have also been on larger multi-agency fires where one person is the dedicated photographer. This can work out very nicely but all members need to understand the role and duties of the photographer. If the pictures are not taken first then there will always be a question in the mind of juries whether the scene was tampered with or not. You only get one chance at capturing the scene and once items are moved then they can never be put back exactly like they were. This doesn't mean you do not reconstruct the scene but debris will fall off items when they are moved, objects may have smudges on them (hopefully everyone wears gloves), etc.

You also have to contend with the crews not destroying your scene before pictures are taken. The investigator has to document what was moved in their report whether the crews or other investigators disturb the scene. If the investigators will wait a few minutes while the photographer takes the pictures the final results will be better and a lot less time consuming. I had the same battle with my department until our conviction rate climbed to over thirty percent then everybody started realizing the value of a good photographer and using a systematic approach. Good Luck

Permalink Reply by pattyb254 on July 2, 2010 at 10:45am

I have been the photographer at the cases we have looked at. I try to get pix before we go in and start digging and usually it works well. Our troops have been good about not getting in too deep before we get there.