The life of a Crime Scene Co-ordinator.

Shropshire Star

Living in Shropshire, working for West Mids Police webchat to a Crime Scene Co-ordinator about her job.

Transcript

00:00so we're here with joe and little pup there what's little pup in the background so this is peanut

00:06peanut hello peanut peanuts nine weeks old and a little terror so keeping you busy but joe also

00:12keeping you busy is your job just fill us in what do you do what's your job role so i am a crime

00:18scene coordinator and i work for west midlands police so what does a crime scene coordinator do

00:23i think a lot of us have heard of crime scene officers and those are the people taking the

00:27pictures and picking up bits and bobs and putting them in special bags what's a coordinator do so

00:33crime scene coordinator main role is attending murder scenes or suspicious deaths and also

00:39multiple complex scenes as well so i coordinate all the scenes with regard to the investigation

00:45and that involves liaising with the senior investigating officer and formulating forensic

00:51strategies of which then are given to the forensic scene investigators to then carry out the crime

00:57scene so what's the the most enjoyable pleasurable thing about you your job that you do i've been

01:03doing this 28 years now and you know it's actually getting that end result so getting justice for the

01:09victim and their families and that really drives me in in the job um and that's why you know i still

01:15love the job i do um because it's so rewarding well i'm gonna say what's the worst thing about it i'm

01:21guess it's some of the um awful scenes that you you're faced with sometimes yeah obviously i i tend

01:27um you know murder scenes um which may be the victims may be young um children or you know maybe domestic

01:36murders and i think it just you know obviously dealing with children is probably one of the worst

01:42things um but it's also dealing with the mental side as well and processing that yeah

01:49these peanuts making his voice

01:56so how do you so how do you kind of process that then when you get back what do you do to kind of

02:02switch off and and a detox from that sort of thing so having suffered with post-traumatic stress um

02:09before i've learned a lot from that um and what i focus on now when i'm at the scene is that

02:14i look at it and think well i can't change anything i can't change what's happened but what i can do

02:19i can get i can make things right so i can get justice for the victim and their family yeah and

02:23that really drives me in my job and and i kind of focus on that rather than you know and also focus on

02:29the job in hand really yeah um but sometimes it does become difficult because you can relate to it

02:34you know obviously if i'm dealing with a child that's been murdered and my child was the same

02:39age at the time that's when it's hard to process it yeah you know it does become difficult because

02:45we're only human at the end of the day yeah you know and we see things that no human being should

02:50ever have to see and you've put um you've you know you've you've seen a lot you've experienced a

02:55lot it's an interesting job and you've put that to good use you've that's a book you've brought out

03:00there isn't it let's have a look at that so when did this come out joe so this was published in may

03:052024 yeah and it's all about my kind of right roller coaster of a home life um but it also

03:13incorporates significant murders that i've dealt with throughout my career um and it talks about

03:18my ptsd talks about my breast cancer um it also covers adhd because my son who's now 21 has got

03:26adhd yeah so it covers quite a lot of subjects really which you know i'm sure a lot of people

03:31can relate to so you've had a lot of things going on at different times in your life haven't you not

03:36only the role with the job but like you say your own health and you know concerns over your son um

03:43it's a lot of people wouldn't be able to handle it what what where do you think you get the do you

03:48look back and see the traits in your mom and your dad and you think that's where i get me you know

03:52my stamina and me me kind of strength from yeah i mean obviously i follow my dad quite a lot he's

03:59very much the attitude of you know he was um obviously passed away in december but he was diagnosed

04:04with cancer um and in my attitude was very much like my dad's is that you know there's nothing you can

04:10do um you've got what you've been given so you just crack on and deal with it because you can't send it

04:16back so you know you kind of brush yourself off uh and get back up and get on with things um and

04:22i've always been positive and i think and hence why i wrote the book really because i've always said

04:28that no one would actually believe the roller coaster that i've had and the things that have

04:31been thrown at me and the kind of you know the deck of cards i've been dealt yeah i have been dealt

04:36with them and you know i'm not one to give up so it's about you know just dealing with it

04:41remaining positive and just carrying on and that's what i've always kind of focused on really is

04:45positivity so i guess those are the stories in that book there that you can kind of things you

04:51can learn about about you and perhaps even yourself when you're reading it perhaps lessons in life that

04:58you can carry through you know that not just if you're a crime scene officer crime scene coordinator

05:04but just general lessons in life about perseverance and finding strength yeah certainly and that's that's

05:09the reason i wrote it was really to um you know it would you know um people can relate to this yeah

05:18people that've got children with adhd suffer with cancer suffer with pdh ptsd yeah they can relate to

05:25this and hopefully they can find the strength as well um you know to overcome these things and that's

05:30one of the reasons i wrote it and if people are thinking she looks a bit like that woman off that

05:34csi forensics tv show well they're not wrong are they just fill us in on how that came about you

05:40ended up on the telly box yeah so uh what year was it now so in 2019 2019 i returned to work and i was

05:53then featured in the bbc iplayer program forensics of real csi yeah and there's been quite a few series

06:00um and we're just recently finishing off um filming for the next series um it's been really popular

06:06um because it obviously gives you an in-depth kind of look into forensics and the work that we do and

06:12how involved each murder investigation is well fantastic well thank you for all your hard work

06:18you do looking after us kind of behind the scenes i mean we often see police officers but obviously

06:23you know we shouldn't never forget there's a whole army of people like yourself behind the scenes

06:28helping to solve those crimes which benefits all of us so thank you joe welcome

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