Cordon
Definition
The physical barrier (tape, cones, officers) that separates the protected scene from the outside world. Set deliberately wide and reduced only when specific areas are cleared, never expanded once the scene is active.
- Made of
- Tape, cones, and officers
- Initial sizing rule
- Set deliberately wide
- Direction of change
- Reduced only after specific areas are cleared
- Expansion after activation
- Never expanded once active
Common questions
Why start a cordon wider than seems necessary?+
An underestimated boundary risks losing evidence such as a discarded weapon, footwear impressions, or a vehicle route before it is even recognised as part of the scene. Reducing a cordon later is straightforward; recovering ground already trampled by bystanders is not.
What happens if new evidence is found outside an active cordon?+
A separate cordon is established around the new area rather than expanding the original one, since expanding retroactively cannot undo any contamination that occurred while the area was unprotected.
Related terms
- Contamination
- The introduction of foreign material into a scene, or the displacement of existing material within it, by any person or environmental factor...
- Crime Scene Sketch
- A measured, overhead-view drawing of the scene produced to scale. Unlike a photograph, it records spatial relationships and distances that are free...
- Primary Scene
- The location where the main criminal event occurred: where the body was found, where the attack took place, where a safe was...
- Scene Notes
- The contemporaneous written record kept by the first officer and later by the scene examiner. Notes are time-stamped, sequential, and admissible: they...
- Secondary Scene
- Any location linked to the crime but separate from the main event: a vehicle used to transport a victim, a disposal site,...