KERNEL OF AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE: ”Idiot’s Guide to Evidence Triage”
What is the minimum one can do to record a scene?
If you are a journalist, a soldier, or a humanitarian worker, it is not your job to investigate potential criminal sites in war and post-conflict. However, there are minimum steps that may preserve enough of a site in case it turns out to be important or if investigators need information about the site as you found it.
Basic concept of being a witness: If you give evidence in court, you try to tell the court that you saw something. What is the minimum you must record to be a witness in useful way?
Ralston says the ideal minimum is this:
*Video the general context
*Photograph detail
*sketch the site, showing important details
*map the area, placing it in relation to fixed points