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Grim thoughts on crime scene investigating: FT/CSI guide


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This guide is a combination of common wiki knowledge and personal experience. It has some information that can be found useful by a beginner CSI. It might not be entirely reliable or extensive. The basics were covered, yet there's always room to experiment and improve on your techniques.


Chapter 1: Who Am I?

 

This is not just a question. This is THE question. To understand what are your duties as a CSI you should know what does this title mean on Aurora. You'll have people adressing you by many different names. Forensics, CSI, detective, officer. So which one of these is correct? Well, all and none of them. First of all, let's get this out of the way: you're NOT an officer. Everything an officer should do - you shouldn't. You're not authorised to perform arrests, you're not entitled to a lethal weapon, you shouldn't chase after criminals. Even if you really want to. Although, in exceptional circumstances you will be forced to take action. That is if you're the only member of security for the shift, if commander explicitly asks you to partake in defending the station and personally hands you a weapon, if you have no other choice but to perform a civilian arrest in order to save your or someone else's life. As a rule of thumb - if you have any other choice - don't do what an officer can do. Even when you're pulled into action, stay on a supportive role, don't run into the frey, concentrate on helping officers up rather than putting criminals down.


Now, are you a detective? Well, yes, technically you can be called a detective, however your boundaries and duties differ from that of the actual detective.

Well what are you then? You are actually a lot of different things. Behind your forensic technician/CSI title hide the duties of forensic technician (working the lab), crime scene investigator (gathering and preserving evidence from a crime scene), coroner (medical examination of the bodies), criminal photographer and a bit of a detective (building a case but not performing arrests). So you're basically the brain of ISD. A nerd in a gym. Think of yourself as a child of medbay and science departments. Your parents divorced and momma medbay found a new family and you come to visit, although they hate you immensely, and dad science is busy working his ass to cover court expenses and you live with your weird but cool uncle security.


So it would be wise to forget about combat skills (there are plenty of fighters in security as is), you were hired for your smarts and education, not for your oversized guns.


CSI's notes:

Although you should be a jack of all traits, don't do everything alone. Delegating your responsibilities is what CSI is all about. Ask medbay to do body exams, ask detective to fill in the case report, ask science to look at the weird device you found on the crime scene, ask engineers if they can help you find out how the door was hacked, ask psychiatrist if he had a talk with a person that apparently suicided, ask librarian if he knows anything about the weird runes in maint, ask the bartender if he can put your whiskey on commander's tab, ask the chaplain if the god is real. Consults are not only a source of information, they also engage other players in the round's events, which is a good thing.

 

CSI's notes:

If the detective is absent you're expected to fill in, talking to witnesses, doing interrogations and listening to noir music, but all that activity is not covered in this guide.

 

 

 

Chapter 2: Getting Ready

 

Suit - it is a form of Neglect of Duty to not look good, working in investigation wing.


Jacket - your jacket is what visually designates you as a member of ISD. It also has two very convenient pockets, where you can store your shit. When shit starts going down, switch to an armor vest to add some protection.


Black Gloves - your trademark. Ideally you shouldn't be touching anything anyway, but if you do, this will prevent you from leaving your prints all over the crime scene, saving you some time during evidence processing.


CSI's notes:

If two different people with two different pairs of black gloves touched an item, the fiber analysis will reveal just a single count of black gloves fibers. However you can use a hand labeler to label your pair of gloves. Magically it will change your gloves' fibers in a unique way, so that you'd be able to distinguish them from all the other black gloves' fibers. Now there's a problem with that. Having your gloves labeled lulls you into a sense of safety. It's easy enough to get a pair of black gloves, it's easier still to label them in the exact same way CSI has. So be mindful of that. By the way, the only thing that criminals can't forge are your fingerprints. So strangely enough, it just might be more convenient not to wear gloves at all.

 

Evidence Bag Box - dragging evidence bag onto a piece of evidence will protect it from further contamination with fibers and prints.


Camera - to save the image of the crime scene not only in your heart but also in archives for future reference.


Film Catridge - to keep those juicy pictures coming.


Flash - What's that? You wanted a shiny revolver? Oh, but I have something even better for you! Here's a flash, go play with it. (IPC's and people with protective eyewear are immune to its effects, yaaaay)


CSI's notes:

Well, yeah, sometimes i wish NT didn't implement this policy and CSI was allowed to carry firearms. However (now hear me out) this could just be a blessing in disguise. Since you're not an officer and are not authorised to perform arrests and you're not supposed to involve yourself in serious fights. And let that single flash in your pocket be a reminder of that. On the other hand, when you DO actually have to get your hands dirty, the lack of serious weapon will make you think about your every move to avoid certain death. And when you get yourself a lethal weapon, mastering such an approach will make you so much deadlier than average officer. (Full disclosure: you will die a lot, grasping your flash and wishing you had a revolver until you learn to stay out of harm's way)

 

Police Tape - to prevent unrelated crewmembers from wandering onto your crime scenes.


Holobadge - as a full-fledged member of security team you're entitled to your personal holobadge. These can usually be found in warden's office. Get one, swipe your id on it. Now everyone thinks you're a real cop.


Crowbar - to be able to navigate around the station in case of a power failure or something even worse.


Flashlight - to find evidence even if it's hidden in shadows.


CSI's notes:

Crowbar and a flashlight are not issued to forensic technicians, so you'll have to find it elsewhere. Upon embarking on such a quest you could find a conveniently stacked crowbars and maglights in officers' equipment room. "Surely i can take it, since i have access to this room. It's not illegal, right?". Wrong. There are exactly 4 crowbars and 4 flashlights in the equipment room. For 4 officers. And they will most likely need those more than you ever will. So don't be a dick, take your time to travel to auxiliary tool storage and get yourself another flashlight and crowbar. Common courtesy, my friend: a sign of a true CSI.

 

 

Chapter 3: We've Got a Call

 

So, you've been called to a crime scene? Don't panic, you have prepared for this. Grab your crime scene kit, check if everything you need is there, ask officers to seal the scene and head to the location. Note the time of the call. It will take just a couple of seconds to take a note in your PDA but you will need it later. Here's a list of things, that should be with you when you respond to a call:


Crime Scene Kit - obviously the kit itself. A neat grey container with multiple compartments for storing various tools. Due to the properties of the special fabric, it can not be tainted by fibers or prints.


Box of Swab Kits - arguably the most useful tool in your posession, swab kits have a number of different uses:


-DNA Swabs. Using a swab kit on a person, targeting its mouth, on a blood stain or on a bloodied item will get you a DNA sample. Analyzing the DNA sample will give you information about who this DNA belongs to. Mouth swabs usually help you update station medical records or identify who this disformed corpse once was. Blood trails can contain vital information about the identity of a victim, in case a corpse can't be located. Swabbing bloodied clothes and murder weapons can clarify the situation in case of conflicting stories.


CSI's notes:

Cult blood runes are valid targets for taking a DNA swab.

 

CSI's notes:

If the blood did not originate from a person (a.k.a. spawned at the beginning of the round or was the result of changeling undergoing transformation) you will physically be unable to take a DNA swab of it.

 

-GSR Swabs. After a person uses a powder-based firearm, tiny particles of powder settle down on their hands. Using a swab on a person, targetting its hands, or on the person's gloves (if they were wearing gloves at the moment of the shot) will help you determine if that person shot a powder-based firearm and even what that firearm was.


Luminol - a substance that glows a bright bluish light, should it come in contact with blood. Works best in pair with UV light


UV Light - ultra-violet light will help you reveal traces of blood even if they were cleaned by a criminal, or your eternal rival - the janitor. If the tile with cleaned blood is sprayed with luminol, turning a UV light on nearby it will show you the stain as if it was never removed. Still won't work if the perp cleaned thoroughly enough though.


Fingerprint Powder - people leave their fingerprints on any surface they touch. Use this tool on items or surfaces (such as walls, airlocks and possible murder weapons) to get a nice set of fingerprints of anyone who ever touched the item. That is if they were not wearing gloves, of course.


Fiber Collection Kit - if the criminal did in fact bother to wear gloves - fear not. Every piece of clothes leaves its micro particles on everything it comes in contact with. Items, walls, doorways, you name it. One accidental bump into the wall - and you got them. Fiber collection kit used on the item will get you all the fibers left on it, sorted in a little plastic bag.


Box of Fingerprint Cards - blank fingeprint cards can be used on a person, targetting their hands to take their fingerprints. It's usually used for updating security records or to identify the person when DNA identification is unavailable. Just don't forget to remove the target's gloves.


Box of Body Bags - provided paramedics know what they're doing, upon discovering a dead body of a crewmember, they left the it untouched on the crime scenes and called for security. So after you're done working on a crime scene, you're expected to take care of the body. Stuff it into a body bag and drag it to medbay. Again - common courtesy.


Reagent Scanner - a neat little device, that allows you, upon using it on any substance, see the list of reagents it consist of. It works on liquids sprayed on the ground as well as syringes, beakers and other containers. Does not reveal chemicals, injected in blood.


Mass Spectrometer - looks and works similar to the reagent scanner. Feed it blood, then use it to reveal the contents of said blood. Used to check if the victim was drugged. Keep in mind, that mass spectrometer uses 5 units of blood and it is destroyed in the process.


Box of Syringes - to take samples of blood or other substances you find on the crime scene.

 

Chapter 4: Crime Scene Investigating

 

So you got everything you need and have arrived on your crime scene.

First thing first - secure the scene if it wasn't done yet and don't touch anything in the process. Display your badge, order the civilians to disperse, set up the police tape. Try not to seal off high-traffic areas if you can, otherwise it's a matter of time until someone breaks the line, contaminates your scene and wastes your time. If there already was an officer on the crime scene when you arrived, ask him if anything was moved, get the names of those who dared to tamper with your evidence, get the names of all potential witnesses and relay all that information to the detective for questioning. If there's no detective - an officer will do. Remember not to touch anything.

After that - have a brief look at the crime scene. Try to imagine what happened here. Where did the criminal enter, what did he do, where did he exit the scene? Use your camera to take photos of the crime scene, to be able to reference its initial state in the future. Take a general picture and any specific ones as needed. But no touching.

Right, did i mention you shouldn't touch anything? I hope you followed this advice, because now it is going to matter. Drop your kit and use all the tools at your disposal to gather as much evidence as possible. Golden rule of CSI: always collect fibers first, then fingerprints. Look for fibers and prints, take swabs of the blood, take the victim's swab if they can not be identified, look at their injuries, go through their posessions, pay special attention to their pda (maybe they were messaging the killer). All in all - let your imagination go wild. Every CSI has their own way of collecting evidence, feel free to find yours. Sometimes you will have to expand the established borders of your search. Do whatever you deem necessary, just don't miss anything. Stuff vital pieces of evidence into evidence bags to prevent further contamination. After you checked every imaginable lead, grab all the evidence you managed to get, declare that you're done, call in the paramedics to retrieve the body (or haul it to medbay yourself), tell officers to stop batoning the janitor and head to your office. Your job on the crime scene is done.

 

Chapter 5: Processing Evidence

 

So, you're in your office and have all those swabs, cards and fibers on your hands. "Is it enough to condemn the criminal?" Not yet, Jimmy. To make sense out of the things you gather we have to do some lab work.


DNA Analyzer - this huge machine in your lab takes in DNA swabs. Put a DNA swab into it, close the lid, press "start scan". It will take some time, but on the output you will get a paper with a string of numbers. These are the DNA hash, unique to every living creature. Pro tip: don't mix DNA swabs and GSR swabs. It won't do you any good if you stick those into the wrong machine.


High Powered Electron Microscope - your microscope have a lot of uses. It will help you analyze fingerprints, fibers and GSR. Put a fingerprint card into the microscope, click on it, wait a bit and you should get a paper with one or several strings of numbers. Unlike fingerprint cards, this number can be used to compare fingerprints against station database or against one another. Drag the microscope sprite onto your sprite to retrieve the analyzed item. The process is exactly the same with fiber bags and GSR swabs, however you will need to put those on microscope slides first.


Microscope Slide Box - use a GSR swab or a fiber bag on a microscope slide. This will allow you to put those into the microscope to analyze them. The resulting paper's contents are self-explanatory. Slides are reusable, just use them in your hand to retrieve your piece of evidence and you can put another one on there.


Processing evidence is easy. However, if you have a body on your hands - that's when it becomes difficult. Autopsy itself is not a hard process at all. But more often than not you'll hsve to delegate body examination to medbay. And there's always about 40% chance they will fuck it up. And when you storm their lobby in righteous fury to find out who stopped the investigation from preventing another death you will most likely be told to fuck off. And then you persist, and then you're suddenly sitting in commander's office trying to keep your badge. So let's set our priorities straight here: work first, dealing with incompetence later. Stay profesional, do your job, redo the autopsy if needed and if you so happen to get yourself a competent, adequate medic - don't forget to visit the chapel and praise Space Jesus for that gift after the case is closed. Now let's go through the autopsy process.


CSI's notes:

There are a couple specific rules you need to follow when dealing with a body. First of all, by the protocol medbay is entitled to treat every living crewmember. If a crewmember is lying on your crime scene critically wounded - let paramedics take care of him. However, if he's already dead - his body becomes evidence, and therefore falls under your jurisdiction. When you finish your work on the crime scene - the body should be hauled to medbay to make a cloning attempt. And only then can an autopsy be done. If you want to do autopsy yourself - you should get medbay staff permission to retrieve the body from morgue. And return it back to medbay after you're done, unless you need it stored as evidence for some reason.

 

Operating Table - you have a neat setup for performing an autopsy in your lab. Take a corpse and put it on the operating table. Take a photo of it before making any incisions (don't forget to set the focus on one). It actually does nothing for the investigation, but it's immersive as fuck.


CSI's notes:

Speaking of immersive - get a pair of latex gloves, a sterile mask and a labcoat from medbay. Again, flavor purposes only.

 

Scalpel - now get your shiny scalpel and set your intent on help. Shift click the body to examine it and note every damaged area. One by one target those areas and click on the body to make incisions. Do NOT move while doing so as it will damage the corpse.


Autopsy Scanner - After making incisions on every damaged part of the corpse, take an autopsy scanner and use it on the corpse, targetting each body part with an incision one by one. After doing so right click the autopsy scanner in your hand and print the results. The resulting paper will show you the exact time of death, weapons used to damage the victim, number of times they were hit with it and the severity of the sustained damage, dealt by that weapon.


CSI's notes:

Autopsy will not reveal poison or suffocation damage. Although you can put together visual examination and autopsy report to have a more or less reliable understanding of what hapeened to the body, try to get a full body scan from medbay to get a whole picture.

 

CSI's notes:

Autopsy reports do not reveal certain kinds of brute damage. For example, if the target fell, broke its limbs and bled out, the autopsy report will be a blank paper with time of death on top. Damage from excessive cold or depressurization, however, WILL show up.

 

 

Chapter 6: Building a Case

 

At this point you should have a stack of papers on your hands. Clip them together to be able to manage your case materials better. To make sense out of strings of numbers (DNA and fingerprint analysis) you'll have to compare them to the station database.


Medical Records Console - for DNA analysis go to the medical records console that in located in your office (this is where DNA database is stored), log in, pick "search records". Now copy paste the DNA string from your paper into the pop-up window. This will return you the medical file of the crewmember. Make a habit of writing down the name of the owner of the DNA sample on the analysis paper. It'll save you some time.


Security Records Console - fingerprints database is located in security records console. So go to the sec records console, log in and use search to find the owner of the fingerprints. Unlike DNA database you don't need to paste the whole string into the search bar. Three or four first digits will do. After you get a match, take your time to grab a pen and put a name under those faeless digits in a fingerprint analysis paper, as you did with the DNA analysis.


CSI's notes:

If there is no match, it means that either the record was deleted or, most likely, you're dealing with an unauthorised intruder.

 

CSI's notes:

Sometimes technology fails you. Does that mean you become a useless piece of nicely dressed shit? No it doesn't. For situation like power failure or total wipe of records or when you have to make sure records were not modified, there are two filler cabinets in your office with full medical and security records of the crew. You'll have to search manually, but it's better than nothing. Fun fact: when a crewmember cryos his mechanical and digital records are automatically removed.

 

 

Now that you have all the evidence analized and on paper, go through them if you haven't done so in the process. You have the names of those who were on your crime scene, those who touched something bare handed, those who bled there, the name of the victim, you know what clothes they wore, you have a murder weapon. You have everything. If you don't - don't be shy to visit the crime scene again to check if you missed anything, but remember that with every visit the reliability of gathered evidence decreases exponentially. Throughout your analysis you should've been supplying the detective with possible leads and information about the crime. Send them the full picture you've gathered and consider your work done. After all, they're the hero of the story, they will use information you supplied them with to find the perp and perform an arrest. You're just a humble consultant. If there's no detective, you can step in, but do not overstep your boundaries otherwise. Remember: you work behind the scenes and stay there when the work is done. Fame goes to someone else, but you've made it possible, so be proud of it.

 

Chapter 7: Wrapping Things Up

 

Do not underestimate the importance of this step. After the case was built it should be properly documented, so that anyone (be it an officer, a captain or the next CSI that arrives on the station after you cryo) should be able to look at your case files and be able to perfectly understand what happened there, when did it happened, what have you been doing about it and where to find the relevant evidence. Noone's going to thank you for this work, but believe me when i say, it makes a huge difference.


Folder - investigator's best friend, it allows you to manage your papers effectively. You can store multiple clipped stacks of paper in one folder, freeing a considerable amount of space in your backpack, you can view those papers without getting them out of the folder and, most importantly, you can rename them. It's that more efficient when your case is named not fiber report #127 but something that reflects the nature of the case.


Hand Labeler - another useful tool for labeling things. Label all and everything. Label lockers, label evidence, label case paperwork. Make sure everything is labeled and labeled properly.


Photocopier - to multiply your case files in case the detective or someone else requests a copy.


Chest Drawer - a drawer in your office can be used to store paperwork on ongoing cases. It prevents unwanted people from tampering with it as well as lets you slightly faster access.


Forensic Technician Request Console - its forms database is an invaluable source of paperwork templates such as case and evidence reports.


Case Report - the final stroke of a brush. It's actually detective's work to maintain those, but since you're in charge of evidence, that's what you end up with doing most of the time. Help to grasp the narrative of the case without looking at the stacks of analysis paperwork. When the case is closed, fill this in, get it stamped, clip it to the case materials and archive it.


Evidence Report - when it's not worth opening a case.


Evidence Storage - your fourth home. Goes after your office, the bar and, you know, your actual home. The domain of evidence lockers. Maintain it like your life depends on it. Anyone who walks in should instantly understand where and how is evidence and case materials sorted.


Evidence Closet - each case gets a sepatate locker in the evidence storage. Store all the material evidence from the crime scene there, then label it.


Filing Cabinet - a filling cabinet in evidence storage is used to archive closed cases. Make sure evrything is properly done and stamped, label it in a folder than put it in the filling cabinet.

 

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