How to Prepare a Crime Scene Investigation kit

Filling your crime scene kit depends on the job you do and the crimes you investigate. You'll want the basics, including fingerprinting supplies and a quality camera. You can fill the remainder of your crime scene kit with as many gadgets as your budget allows.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Finger Printing kit

1. Choose an all-purpose latent finger print powder. Keep a minimum of an ounce in stock at all times.
2. Stock several lifting pads, which you use to pull the fingerprints off of the surface for analysis.
3. Keep at least one very soft fiberglass fingerprint brush in your crime scene kit to wipe away excess powder and reveal the print below.
4. Find a sturdy container to keep your fingerprinting supplies together and protected inside your crime scene kit.

Photography kit

5. Choose a high-quality 35 mm camera. Also stock the type of film the camera requires and is called for by the crime you investigate. Make sure there is always ample film in your crime scene kit. Consider a digital camera and plenty of batteries as well.
6. Include multiple photograph markers to show where and in what order you took the photographs at your crime scene.
7. Add a black sharpie marker to label photographs and evidence bags.
8. Check to make sure you have a sturdy measuring tape in your crime scene kit.
9. Include several measurement scales to help show the scale and dimensions of the items you photograph.

Other Items to Include

10. Gather the items you need to make plaster casts of things like footprints, tire tracks or other depressions.
11. Stock plenty of evidence bags in a variety of sizes, along with the specific tape required by your law enforcement agency to seal those evidence bags.
12. Pack protective clothing like latex gloves and protective eye wear. You may want to toss in some cotton clothing made specifically for crime investigations.
13. Include flashlights in a variety of sizes and strengths, along with several batteries, so you can investigate every angle of the crime scene.
14. Consider a wet chamber, made to preserve evidence found in water, like a gun tossed in a river. This lets you preserve an item from further decay by storing it in the same water in which it's found.