C.S.I. Checklist

About C.S.I. Checklist

C.S.I. Checklist™ is a product of ForensIQ, Inc., produced to assist criminal investigation professionals real-time in the field. It represents a quick reference guide, always with you on your mobile device, organized in a bulleted checklist format, that can be referred to when conducting a crime scene investigation.

It was created by Thomas P. Mauriello, a university professor, forensic consultant, author, and former police and federal investigator. He has taken his 45+ years of experience and knowledge teaching, training, writing, consulting and conducting investigations, and produced a simple checklist tool that provides all the recognized standards and procedures necessary to conduct a successful investigation. A majority of the steps and procedures listed in the checklists have been recognized by the United State Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, are a set of investigative tasks that should be performed at every crime scene. They were produced by technical working groups which were multidisciplinary content-area experts from across the United States, from both urban and rural jurisdictions.

C.S.I. Checklist™ is the first and currently the only App of its kind that has been created to ensure that first responders don’t miss valuable steps that should be taken during the criminal investigation process. The App can be used as a guide by first responders such as uniformed police officers and investigators, crime scene technicians, emergency medical technicians, fire fighters, medical examiners and coroners, and crime lab technicians and forensic scientists; and also used as an assessment tool for prosecutors and defense attorneys to evaluate cases for crime scene processing and evidence collection and examination accuracy and thoroughness.
There are ten separate checklists that can be referred to that reflect the steps that should be taken to protect a crime scene, identify physical evidence, questions to be asked during first responder reporting of crimes, and resources available to satisfy the needs and expectations of the criminal justice process.

The ten checklists include:
1. Preliminary Investigation – Initial Response, Support personnel, and documentation.
2. Crime Scene (CS) Procedures – Protection, Assessment, Evidence collection, documentation.
3. Crimes Against Person Procedures – Death Investigation, Sex Assaults.
4. Theft and Related Offenses – Theft related property crimes with elements of proof.
5. Burglary as a Property Crime – Elements of proof, types, and investigative procedures for burglary theft.
6. Robbery (As a crime against persons and property) – Elements of proof, types, the robbery suspect, and interviewing procedures.
7. Arson Scenes – First responder actions, evaluating the scene, and processing evidence.
8. Explosion and Bombing Scene Investigation –The first responder, the investigator, evidence processing and documenting the scene.
9. Electronic Crime Scene and Digital Evidence – handling computer systems as evidence, categories of devices and data collection, and related crimes.
10. Forensic Science Resources – When and how to use the forensic resources for anthropology, botany, entomology and locksmithing, and question document handling.

C.S.I. Checklist™ is not only a procedural tool; it is also a quality control tool. When actions are taken in the field, all activities checked off can be collected and “Shared” with supervisors or team members for accurate and consistent reporting.