Crime scene cleanup

Crime Scene Cleanup is a phrase denoting a type of professional cleaning which follows a trauma.

Usage

Television productions like Crime Scene Investigation have added to the popularity of the term Crime Scene Cleanup. Australia, Canada, and England have added the term to their professional cleaning terminology.

The generic terms for Crime Scene Cleanup include trauma cleaning, biohazard recovery, crime and trauma scene decontamination (CTS Decon) decontamination, blood cleanup, and bio cleaning.

Types of cleanup

A crime scene cleanup may involve a single blood loss event following a burglary, battery, or homicide. Companies also clean suicides, unattended deaths, teargas damaged environments, and other crime and trauma scenes. Larger crime scenes involve terrorist attacks, mass murder scenes, and the cleanup of anthrax and other biochemicals.

Crime Scene Cleanup companies may also clean bird and rodent infested areas referred to as "unsantary dwellings," "packrat houses," and "filthy houses." The Crime Scene Cleaners' experience and equipment more suits this type of cleaning than a typical cleaning company's equipment and experience. Decontaminating areas frequented by potentially deadly viruses requires training and experience.

Safety concerns

Blood-borne disease is always a safety concern and medical-like standards are invoked when cleaning soiled scenes. Minimal safety standards for cleaning crime scenes are set by OSHA because of employment considerations as well as health issues. Besides the Federal Government's OSHA standards, many state Health, OSHA or EPA departments have created similar standards and regulations. Similarly, the Center for Disease Control establishes standards and regulations for working with blood soiled environments as well as exposure reporting.

Business

Crime Scene Cleanup is a small business activity in most cases. At times small businesses, such as carpet cleaning and water damage companies add Crime Scene Cleanup to diversify their activities. Some franchise opportunities are available through Servpro, ServiceMaster, Amdecon [1], Rainbow International and other nation-wide franchisers.

Methods

The crime scene cleaners' work begins when the coroner's office or other official, government body releases the "scene" to the owner or other responsible parties. Only when the police investigation has completely terminated on the contaminated scene may the cleaning companies begin their task.

Standard operating procedures for the crime scene cleanup field often include military-like methods for the decontamination of internal and external environments. Universal precautions recognized World-wide are the cautionary rule-of-thumb for this field of professional cleaning.

Authorities in this field

Noted authorities in the field of Crime Scene Cleanup include Dale Cillian who in 1985 was the first person to perform biohazard cleaning as a business, creating the bio-recovey industry. Dale also wrote the first bio-recovery technician test based on the first bio-recovery training manual written by Kent Berg. [2]. Michael J. Tillman, Certified Safety & Health Official, and Founder and CEO of Amdecon, Inc. Mr. Tillman was the first instructor to hold classes that used real blood and tissue during training in actual crime scene mock-ups.[3]. Don M. McNulty, currently writes for CleanFax and Cleaning Management Magazines and was the first to offer training and certification in public seminars [4]. Kent Berg and Patrick Moffett are also authorities in the field. Kent Berg's contributions include a national training institute [5], the first comprehensive training manuals for the industry, and the founding of the American BioRecovery Association. Patrick Moffett's publications are often produced as academic essays and treatises. Moffett defines Crime Scene Cleanup in The Blue Book and lists general price guidelines for cleaning crime scenes. Moffett's activities are generally related to indoor environmental inspection.

Organizations

Generally recognized organizations for this field of cleaning include the American Bio-recovery Association, ABRA, NADCOM, (the North American Decontamination Commission)[6] and the SCRT The Society of Cleaning and Restoration TechniciansandInstitute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification, IICRC. ABRA is the largest membership organization in the USA for trauma cleaners. The IICRC is a certifying body for the cleaning trade in general.