Description

Patrol gets there first. What you do in the first 30 minutes either preserves the case or compromises it. This 4-hour course is built for the officers who catch death calls before detectives arrive — covering everything from scene security and Fourth Amendment compliance to cause-of-death recognition and handing a clean scene to investigators. Idaho POST-certified.

Death scenes are not the detective’s problem until patrol hands them off. This course gives street cops the foundation to make that handoff count.

What This Course Covers

• Scene security and preservation: what to protect, what not to touch, and why it matters for prosecution
• Fourth Amendment considerations at death scenes: search authority, warrant requirements, and when you need one
• Documenting the scene: photography, sketches, drone and 360-degree LiDAR capture
• Identifying cause and manner of death: the distinctions between homicide, suicide, accident, and natural death
• Recognizing death scene indicators: lividity, rigor, decomposition, and wound patterns at a patrol level
• Interviewing witnesses and family members on scene
• Collecting and preserving physical evidence: chain of custody from the first minute
• Coordinating with the medical examiner, detectives, and forensic units
• Documentation requirements that hold up when the case goes to court

4 hours. $75. Idaho POST-certified. Online, self-paced. If you have ever stood at a death scene waiting for detectives and wondered whether you were doing the right things, this course answers that question.