When you hear the words ‘crime scene investigator’, you may well think of Miami or New York… not Wakefield. But that’s the role of UNISON West Yorkshire Police deputy branch secretary Vicky Hamilton, and it’s one of many police staff jobs represented by the union…
“It’s not like it looks on the TV”, Vicky says at the branch office at West Yorkshire Police HQ in Wakefield. “I don’t go to work in my high heels and full make-up. I don’t look pristine all day long. It’s nothing like how it’s portrayed on TV. It’s quite entertaining watching it, to be fair.”
So TV portrayals of crime scene investigators might not be the most accurate, but they did play a part in Vicky taking up the role.
“Originally I wanted to be a vet! So I went to Liverpool University studying zoology, trying to make that happen. It became clear that it was unlikely, so I had to look at other options.
“I’ve always done science – science and maths were my thing – and I think I was watching a ridiculous programme, something like Silent Witness, and thought, I could do something like that.
“Obviously not the pathology side of things because you’ve got to have a medical degree for that, but certainly the crime scene side of things. So then started researching courses in forensic science.
“At the time there were only three universities offering the course – Strathclyde in Scotland, London and Bradford of all places. So obviously living in Leeds, being from West Yorkshire, I chose Bradford. Asked to get on that course and yeah, so I’ve got a Masters degree in Chemistry with Pharmaceutical and Forensic Science.”
A job working as a prison processor for North Yorkshire Police quickly followed, before an advert in the Yorkshire Evening Post for a Scenes of Crime Officer (SOCO) caught the eye.
“Afterwards, I was told that there were 800 applicants for 10 jobs, but they only filled six.”
“Every day is different. There’s not a normal day.”
So onto the job, then. Not exactly as portrayed on TV – so what is it like?
“Every day is different. There’s not a normal day. You could be looking at car crime, so theft from vehicles, it could be burglaries – that’s the day-to-day stuff, that’s the main stuff that comes in.
“It could be something like going to photograph somebody’s injuries, a victim of an assault – someone who’s been injured severely and is in hospital, it could be someone who’s injured in custody.
“It could be anything from that right through to murder or terrorism.”
And that’s certainly true for Vicky. She’s worked on some significant, high profile incidents in West Yorkshire – including the murder of Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox in 2016, the investigation into missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews in 2008, and the murder of three women around Bradford by a man who called himself the ‘Crossbow Cannibal’.
“I don’t think you could actually do that role if you took the emotional side home with you.”
She’s also worked on a number of terrorism jobs.
So how does she cope?
“It sounds awful, but I don’t really remember a lot of cases and a lot of details. It’s possibly a coping mechanism, I don’t know, but for me, I go home and it’s forgotten, which isn’t a bad thing.
“To somebody that doesn’t do the role, that probably sounds really cold, but I don’t think you could actually do that role if you took the emotional side home with you.
“I suppose one of the things that’s always in the back of my mind, and one of the reasons that I wanted to do this job, is because I’m kind of speaking on behalf of somebody that can no longer speak for themselves.
“When somebody’s been murdered, they can no longer speak for themselves. So trying to find answers for them and their family is always in the back of my mind.
“The devastation that’s happened is sort of pushed to one side. It’s more about, I suppose, getting justice for somebody that can’t speak for themselves anymore.”
The crime scene investigator role is one of hundreds of police staff positions, which are represented by UNISON – and Vicky is keen to try and raise awareness of some of these public services roles.
“We’re out there trying to protect communities, trying to do a job that’s really difficult, in difficult circumstances.”
“I’m glad we’re doing this to try and highlight the fact that police staff roles are a thing, and that we are not police officers. We are police staff, we’re employed by West Yorkshire Police – we’re not servants of the Crown, which police officers are.
“There are hundreds of police staff roles that people probably aren’t aware of – all very specialised, all very unique in their own nature, but just as important, in some ways, as a police officer. People kind of misunderstand and get as mixed up with police officers.
“There have been a few high-profile cases that don’t portray the police service in a good light, and it’s quite sad that those few individuals have meant this negativity towards the whole of policing, and not realising that there’s a very, very limited amount of police officers and police staff that shouldn’t be working in a police force, but there’s hundreds of thousands that should.
“They’re the ones that we need to remember, are the ones that are out there trying to protect communities, trying to do a job that’s really difficult, in difficult circumstances.
“We’re trying to serve the public. We’re passionate about what we do. And if it wasn’t for us, the frontline side of things wouldn’t work.”
