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I’m John Letchford, I’m a CSI Operations Manager and I’ve been working for the police for 24 years.
The role of a CSI predominantly involves the attendance at crime scenes. So, we deal with the whole spectrum of different crime types, so, from volume crime – vehicle crime, burglaries, all the way up through arsons, murders, serious and suspicious deaths, those kinds of things.
So, on a given day for a CSI, we would receive our work from the command control system, Storm, and then we’d give each of our CSI team a number of jobs to go out to. So, they would make contact with the victims of those crimes, and they would go and process those crime scenes. So that’s the photography, DNA recovery, fingerprinting, and then, of course, reporting on that, saying what they found, what their interpretation of that evidence was.
So, there’s a few cases that spring to mind as being ones that I’d reflect on for a long time. One case in particular was a major crime. Originally it was reported to us as a sudden death, so we went to take photographs at that scene. When we started to assess that scene, it didn’t look and didn’t present the way that we would expect it to. There were some anomalies that we were quite concerned by, and a thorough assessment of that scene led us to hypothesise that actually this was a murder scene, and, sadly, even worse than that, there was also evidence of a sexual offence as well. We recovered the body, and the forensic post-mortem examination was undertaken. From that post-mortem examination, we identified some pertinent forensic evidence and within 24 hours they were able to profile that DNA and compare it against the national DNA database and introduce a suspect name for that investigation. It was very much a forensic led investigation, and that name that we introduced to the incident room wasn’t even amongst the intelligence that we’d got at that point, so it was a really critical breakthrough to that investigation, and it resulted in an arrest of that individual within hours after that result came through.
I think part of the reason that one is particularly pertinent for me is partly because of the value that the forensic evidence added. The role itself, the CSI role, I guess what it does is it, you interact with people in the darkest moments of their life sometimes and that’s quite a challenging thing. Ultimately, it makes you very grateful that you’re not in those situations but also, it’s a privilege to try and help people through those difficult spells that they’re experiencing and to try and maybe bring justice for them or their families. So, it definitely makes me see life differently.
What I’ve discovered recently as a line manager is that I’ve got a really high percentage of people with dyslexia who operate in a CSI role and what’s wonderful about that here is that in this organisation we don’t see that as a blocker, we actually see that as an advantage and we harness those skills that come with a different way of thinking and it’s quite nice to be operating in that environment.
Meet John Letchford, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Operations Manager, who has been with Northamptonshire Police for 24 years.
“I line manage the CSI team, providing crime scene co-ordination for serious and major crime in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
“First and foremost, my role and the wider role of the CSI contributes to the detection of crime. Our forensic evidence, such as fingerprint identifications and DNA hits, contribute to the identification of suspects and provide objective, impartial evidence for the judicial system which is highly valuable to any investigation.
“In addition, we also provide public reassurance. Our interactions with victims of crime have been shown to improve people’s perception of the police and we often receive positive feedback. My role also allows me to offer advice and guidance in terms of targeting the most efficient and effective evidence to submit for analysis saving time and cost which can be utilised elsewhere.
“My day usually starts with a briefing from the Northants and Leicestershire duty CSI Crime Scene Managers to understand the daily workloads, risks and issues, which I then feed into a regional briefing with my partners in the other regional forces.
“Depending on the nature of the workload, I may develop forensic strategies for various serious or major crime investigations, provide advice on submissions of evidence for forensic analysis, often liaising with forensic service providers and investigators to consider prioritisation and to negotiate turn-around times.
“I regularly hold one-to-one meetings and team meetings with the CSIs I manage, to check in with them regarding welfare, training, workload, accreditation updates and any individual needs.
“As the business lead for the development of a bespoke CSI crime scene reporting app called iExamine, I meet regularly with an external developer to plan designs, updates, bug fixes and scope for further development as well as provide training to regional CSI teams in how to use it.
“CSI, known as SOCO when I joined, had advertised for entry level posts as part of a government initiative to expand forensic examination services called the DNA expansion fund. This allowed me to examine vehicles and photograph injuries. After 18 months, an opportunity for promotion came up and I was successful, allowing me to the examine burglary scenes as well. A further promotion a year later qualified me as a full SOCO, examining all crime scene types from cars and burglary scenes up to sudden and suspicious deaths, arson, assault and murder scenes.
“In 2008 a vacancy at management level allowed me to perform the role of Senior CSI which was my introduction to line management. Regional collaboration in 2016 resulted in a change of role to become a CSI Operations Manager and operate at a local and regional level.
“There is a lot I enjoy about my role. As a line manager I really enjoy developing people, especially when they share my love of the industry. Supporting people to exceed their own expectations is really rewarding. Line management has also provided me with an opportunity to learn a lot about myself. The organisation has exposed me to various courses and inputs which have provided the chance for self-reflection and learning which has been valuable personally and professionally.
“Providing crime scene management and co-ordination for major crime is the part of my role which brings the most satisfaction. I see the pressure it brings as a privilege, and I enjoy being stretched and challenged. Working with highly dedicated people and ultimately helping to deliver justice at the highest end of the crime spectrum is something I really enjoy.
“When reflecting on my career, there are several major crime cases that come to mind. One I am particularly proud of is the investigation into the rape and murder of an elderly lady in her home. This was a case that relied heavily upon forensics. We were initially requested to a sudden death scene but after assessing the scene established that this was a murder and rape. We then undertook a post-mortem examination of the victim and captured forensic evidence. An urgent submission of this evidence for DNA analysis and subsequent search of the DNA database provided a suspect who was then arrested, charged and ultimately found guilty of the offence. This case became subject to a TV documentary, and also a podcast where the pathologist referenced the early identification of the nature of that offence which I am proud to say I was responsible for.
“I am also proud to have delivered the CSI crime scene reporting app iExamine which has removed the reliance on paper reports and the huge duplication of entering data into separate systems, allowing the CSIs in the region to complete reports at the scene and process their evidence without delay or repetition. This was a long-standing ambition from my early career as a CSI where I wanted my time to be spent examining scenes rather than completing admin. This is now fully embedded across the region and other forces are starting to adopt the solution.
“The role of a CSI brings you very close to the most desperate moments of people’s lives. There are a couple of experiences which come to mind, both were really humbling events. The first was the sudden death of a young man, a similar age to me at the time. He had taken his own life and it was my role to photograph the scene which often, as in this case, involves moving the body. I remember being conscious that his desperation had led to this event, and of course the effect on his family. The officer in charge also happened to be of a similar age and we continued to discuss it many years later.
“The second experience was taking injury photographs of a man who was seeking asylum and had been attacked by a group of local men, resulting in some nasty injuries. I visited his flat to take the images, he had no possessions, no friends or family and the only furniture was a single dining chair which he brought to me to make me comfortable during my visit. I remember being stunned by his act of kindness considering his circumstances and the discomfort he must have been in due to his injuries. I’d probably better mention that I did decline the chair and got him to sit down instead! The experience may seem like a small thing, but it was really humbling, to see someone act with benevolence in such a bleak moment.
“Both events led me to develop gratitude for my own circumstances in life, and at an early stage of my career were very influential personally as well as professionally.
“There is a lot of exposure to trauma in the role of a CSI. We are provided with support sessions annually to help us cope. This is largely due to the nature of the things we see, however it is often the interactions with people, and particularly the suffering of vulnerable people, that is hard to deal with. Unfortunately, some of my CSI colleagues have experienced particularly difficult things in the role which have required some additional support to recover from. Thankfully, the organisation has been able to offer services to support them and the outcomes have been positive.
“The biggest challenge we, and any other CSI team, currently face is ISO 17020 accreditation. This requires us to standardise our documentation, training, and continuous professional development, validate and verify our kit, equipment and consumables and evidence our ongoing competence. These are all really positive things but have required a lot of change which has at times proved challenging, particularly switching off long-standing practices in order to adopt new ones. We are however looking forward to being visited by UKAS, the accrediting body, in July this year and hope to be awarded accreditation following their visit.
“Like many others, the CSI team has seen a lot of challenges, including various spells of job uncertainty with spending cuts resulting in redundancies. This can be really hard to deal with at the time and can have a long-term effect on people’s feelings towards their jobs. For such a vocational and unique role this can be tough and takes some determination to get over.
“We also face peaks in demand and have experienced many spells when the workload has exceeded the capacity of the team. This may be due to an intense spell of major crime investigations, or high levels of volume crime at various points. That said, I’ve always been careful not to fall into the trap of wishing for retirement, I can’t bear the thought of wishing life away and always remind myself that the tough times we experience now, we will look back on as the good old days one day so it’s important to enjoy the moment. If that ever stops, it’s time to look for happiness elsewhere. Thankfully, I still love what I do.
“Working for an organisation which promotes inclusion and educates its staff to understand and value the diversity of the people we work for and with is great. As an example, I feel like we are starting to better understand neurodiversity and not simply support, but also value neurodiversity in our organisation. I know that policing in general has a higher than average number of staff with dyslexia, and we are not seeing this as a blocker but as an enabler to different ways of thinking within our teams. I’m not sure you’d get that culture so much in other places of work.
“I also think that seeing the darker side of life in the types of jobs we as CSIs deal with gives you a different perspective on life. Perhaps not always a good thing but certainly eye-opening.
“As a youngster I watched my dad working in jobs he hated, it was to his credit and it was a means to an end, but it made me determined, with the opportunities I’d been given, to pursue something I really enjoyed. In reality that just gave me a long list of things I didn’t want to do! I found this career slightly by accident. A friend put me onto the Holmes Indexers role, where I happened to have the good fortune of working for a remarkable manager, who was the best possible role model for anyone new to the organisation and latterly as an aspiring manager. She became my mentor when I did adopt a line management role further down the line. She also happened to have a CSI background so that helped steer me towards my role. The CSI job gives me the opportunity to do something practical, something meaningful and to work with exceptional people. The relationships I’ve developed have definitely helped steer my career towards something I find fulfilling.”
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