Everybody’s seen crime scenes depicted on TV; there’s yellow crime scene tape everywhere, a chalk line showing where the body was, lots of blood splattered everywhere, and police investigators tromping about looking for evidence, oblivious to potential biohazards. Shows like CSI, Law and Order, and True Detective portray crime scenes as gruesome and often chaotic, with no one wearing personal protective equipment and everyone swarming around randomly looking for clues.
In reality, investigators enter a scene fully protected from biohazards, down to the plastic booties. They do their jobs quietly and methodically. Unlike on the television shows, evidence gathering can take a lot of time in real life.
What the TV shows never portray are the cleanup teams who come in after everyone else has gone. Crime scene cleanup has to wait until the investigators and coroner have released the scene, and that can sometimes take hours.
And the longer blood and bodily fluids are allowed to sit unudisturbed, the worse it gets–the smell ripens; the blood and fluids soak deeper into the floors, walls, and upholstery. If it’s a crime scene that remained undiscovered for a long time, the body will have liquefied.
Crime Scene Cleaners Are Unsung Heroes
It takes a special type of person to be able to go into these types of situations day after day. Methodical, detailed, compassionate, and emotionally strong are just a few of the characteristics crime scene cleaners need to possess in order to effectively deal with the horrors of the job.
It’s a crime scene cleanup team’s job to restore the property to safe condition and make it look as if nothing ever happened. This involves a lot more than just wiping away the bloodstains and tossing soiled material into a dumpster.
Serious health hazards can lurk at the site of any crime scene. Blood, tissue, and bodily fluids can play host to any number of life-threatening diseases. Every tiny trace of biohazard must be found and removed and the property thoroughly cleaned and sanitized with powerful cleaners and disinfectants.
The average person has no concept of how far blood can spatter or the places bodily tissue can wind up. Crime scene cleaners sometimes have to remove splinters of bone from walls or find brain matter inside a lampshade.
Crime scene cleaning can’t be done halfway. It has to be done right the first time. Even if it involves tearing out walls or floors, all contaminated material must be removed or completely cleaned. Significant demolition may be required, especially if an unattended death occurred.
Don’t Try Crime Scene Cleaning Yourself!
This is not a place to cut corners or try to save a little money by doing it yourself. Aside from the obvious emotional trauma that comes from being at the scene of a crime, there’s the fact that most people don’t have a clue what’s involved in biohazard remediation.
Professional crime scene cleaners undergo special training. They have appropriate personal protective equipment. The cleaners and disinfectants they use are hospital and industrial grade. Cleanup crews know how to prevent cross contamination from room to room. They have to be licensed to transport and dispose of materials contaminated with biohazards.
It’s not a safe environment for anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. There’s always a chance of an insufficiently protected person contracting a disease such as Hantavirus, Histoplasmosis, Staph bacteria including MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), or E. coli.
Unless you are trained in biohazard remediation, chances are really good that the crime scene will not be cleaned effectively. Bad odors will increase and permeate the property. Biohazardous material that has been missed will become a threat for anyone entering the property.
Finally, there are laws regulating the disposal of biohazards. Safe handling of contaminated materials is part of the crime scene cleaner’s job.
Trust Sterile Pros for Expert Crime Scene Cleanup
We have been providing crime scene cleaning for nearly ten years and know our business forwards and backwards. We have an excellent reputation for compassion and for doing efficient and thorough work. Available 24/7, we’ll show up quickly, explain everything, and get to work. We can even help file your insurance claim.
When we’re finished, your property will be safe and ready to live in once more.