Operations
SOCOs examine and interpret a large variety of crime scenes. They are arguably the only resource that attends such scenes on a daily basis. Despite this, SOCOs do not have "expert witness" status as recognised by the British judicial system, although they can be asked to give testimony based on opinion at a judge's or magistrate's discretion.
SOCOs examine crime scenes ranging from criminal damage to burglary to homicide, although the forensic science provider for the particular police force in question will often be called in to deal with the more complex forensic opportunities that arise during homicide investigations.
The average day for a SOCO involves dealing with victims of crime amongst members of the public, photographing injuries to victims of assault, and examining crime scenes. Most police forces operate an "on call" system. This means that out of office hours are still covered by a SOCO. Most departments cover the hours between 7am and 10pm, with one SOCO "on call" from 10pm to 7am. This SOCO deals with crime scenes that cannot be preserved for the following day.
Read more about this topic: Scenes Of Crime Officer
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)