I get to work at about 0715 and pick up the CSI bags from the post room. These contain any jobs the CSI's have been to and produced photographic evidence from. The CSI's are split into areas dependent on where they are based i.e. Dartford in known as AZ (area 1) because it is the furthest north area of Kent the CSI's have to go to. Canterbury is known as FZ (area 5) as it is one of the middle Kent areas and Ashford is known as JZ (area 9) as it is the furthest south area of Kent they need to cover.

The amount of bags I collect is dependent on the amount of crime in each area. Sometimes you only have two bags from all the areas, sometimes you have a bag or more from each area because they have been busy.

When I get to my desk I then have to open the bags (individually) and prepare the films inside for processing. Each film comes with a working sheet, which gives all the details of the crime. It will also come with a buff sleeve, which will have a CSI reference and a barcode on it. The reference is related to the number of jobs the CSI has done that year. i.e. AJLS/5/05 would be my reference for my fifth job this year. The barcode is unique to the crime it is married with. i.e. a barcode search will bring up the info related to the crime.

The working sheet will say whether the job needs to be printed or not and if it does a printing sheet needs to be filled out. This needs to show who has ordered the prints, how many albums of prints are required and when they are needed by.

The films are recorded on a sheet that arrives with the bags, so we can keep track of when the films arrived, in case they are needed in the future - from the bag log section.

If a film is requested to be printed, it needs to be recorded on our Police computer system - Locard. This records all the details of the crime in a way that allows members of the Police to search for the crime in question, with the smallest amount of info. i.e. if you only know the offender’s name but you need to know who the victim was, you can put what you know in and search for the remaining information you are after.

I have to put this info on the system before a job can be printed - for continuity reasons! Everybody related to the evidence needs to be mentioned from the person who took the photos, down to the person who printed the photos, just in case it goes to court and the said people needs to be called in to give evidence. 

The photos are printed, with an index of images and relevant info at the front of a kind of album. The amount of albums produced relates to the number of offenders involved in a case. More albums for more offenders!

These albums are then sent back to either the CSI, the Officer in charge of the case or the Senior CSI - each area has a SCSI who is in charge when murders and major crime occur.

As well as dealing with the CSI films, we may also receive films from Traffic, Special Branch, Surveillance, National Crime Squad, Crash Investigations and so on. These are dealt with in the same way as CSI films.

The photographic team (that I am part of) may also be asked to take photos for various customers. We take PR shots for The Chief Inspector etc to publicise the Police and all the good they do! We take injury shots (including UV) for serious assault crimes and we can be involved with Post-mortem photographs.

It is very interesting but can on occasions be very disturbing, so to do a job of this kind, you need a strong stomach and you need to know how to work hard and to deadlines.