What does a crime scene cleaner do?
Many of us will have seen a TV programme or movie featuring crime scenes, scenes of traumatic injuries, or even serious illness. You may have been unfortunate enough to have seen such a thing in real life. But have you ever thought about the people who clean up crime scenes?
The immediate image that comes to mind is of white suits, shoe covers and the all-round CSI or Forensic Investigator outfits. On occasion this isn’t far from the truth - we do indeed wear suits for some of our work, because sometimes it is necessary to ensure our safety and to protect ourselves whilst carrying out our work. The very reasoning behind such PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) demonstrates that the work of a crime scene cleaner doesn’t fall within the usual remit of a domestic cleaner.
We are regularly asked what we do during our working days. This is often at a petrol station or a shop, when the customer service assistants see the subtle logo on our uniform and ask “what does Empire Environmental do?”. The abridged version of the answer is “We are crime scene cleaners”, but in reality there is much more to our work than just those five words.
What is your first thought when it comes to crime scene cleaning? Is it ‘I couldn’t do that’, or perhaps ‘I didn’t know there was a demand for that outside of Hollywood’. I can assure you that there is! Speaking from personal experience a general reaction is the former: a screwed up face followed by “oh no I couldn’t do that, full credit to you”.
But if we didn’t do it, who would? We manage the aftermath of some of the most difficult and unexpected moments in life, which is essential in minimising the trauma of friends and relatives, who would otherwise have to deal with it themselves. It is also vital in properly managing the risk of infection or injury during the cleaning process. This is exactly why we are here, to remove that element of psychological trauma and fully manage the clean up process, returning the environment to how it was before.
You will notice that I refer to incidents which are not crime-related as crime scenes. This is because most people who find themselves in these awful situations don’t know what they need or what to search for online. Popular entertainment, as alluded to above, becomes their basis of knowledge and thus a good umbrella becomes ‘crime scene cleaning’. We would refer to ‘biohazard cleaning’ or ‘environmental cleaning’, but this would miss out a huge portion of the population that wouldn’t initially think of these industry terms. The worry in missing these people is that the stress of the situation grows - the council, police, ambulance service, fire service or coroner will not clean up after these incidents, and so people are left high and dry, desperately trying to figure out what to do.
If you use a search engine for ‘cleaner needed urgently’ or ‘house cleaner’ it is highly likely that you will see a list of domestic cleaning companies, most of which don’t undertake this type of work. It is likely that if you search ‘biohazard cleaner near me’ the results would be closer to your needs. But why?
‘Crime scenes’ in our context covers a multitude of things, from break-ins which have caused broken glass and mess within a property, to stabbings, severe traumatic injuries, natural deaths and even serious medical incidents which have resulted in the presence of biological hazards (biohazards) such as blood, vomit and/or faeces. We find that many people contact us after a relative has become unwell at home and there are biohazards present. The latter are not typically resulting from ‘crime’ but we receive these calls because cleaning up blood in many peoples minds equals a need for a crime scene cleaner. It’s not every day that the need for these services come to light, but when they do it is important that the end goal of contacting the right people to help is achieved. We have spoken with, and indeed helped, many people who have contacted us after a relative has passed away of natural causes and their property needs cleaning due to biohazard presence after searching for a crime scene cleaner.
A startling number of people live alone within the UK and are isolated from the world with few or no relatives or friends, minimal outside contact or daily interaction. This has become exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdown and the need for vulnerable people to physically isolate themselves from risk of harm through transmission of illnesses. Often, sadly, these people pass away alone at home having become even more isolated than before, with no-one being immediately aware. In such cases their death can be undiscovered for some time, whether that be days, weeks or even months.
Without going in to too much detail, an alone death or an ‘unattended’ death results in decomposition and often insect-pest presence in the form of maggots and flies. Such situations lead to a foul odour and a very unpleasant environment to be in, which worsens as time goes on and is exacerbated by factors such as temperature and moisture. Once the deceased person has been located and their body has been moved by the coroner it is often the case that cleaning is required, including disposal of affected materials such as furniture and flooring.
Decomposition, biohazards and human waste can become widespread and require a true eye for detail when it comes to their removal and cleaning. Blood smells, and ensuring that every last drop is removed requires a professional approach and therefore a trained biohazard cleaner. A regular domestic cleaner who does not undertake crime scene cleaning or biohazard cleaning is not likely to be trained, equipped or prepared for such a situation. Even knowing the correct way to use cleaning products is an element of our work, such as matching products specifically to the cleaning needs, considering dwell time, safety around humans and/or pets, safety for food preparation surfaces and compatibility with the surfaces to be cleaned.
Here’s a little task for you: Have a look at a bottle of your favourite disinfectant cleaning product. Does it display a dwell or contact time on the label? This is the manufacturers specific guidance as to how long the product needs to be on a surface for it to work to its declared standard. Do you do this when cleaning, or do you spray and wipe away?
If a bottle says ‘Dwell Time: 5 Minutes’, this means that the product must be on the surface and wet for 5 minutes to achieve, say, 99.9% disinfection. Wiping away before this, or allowing the surface to dry, will allow some microorganisms to survive. When TV adverts for these household cleaners show a quick spray-and-wipe technique, this gives a false impression of their sterilising ability.
We use industry specific cleaning products in the right way, such as heavy duty cleaners, scum removers and enzymes which accelerate the natural decomposition of proteins within bodily fluids and aid odour removal. We also use disinfectants with a rating of 99.99% and many other products depending on the surface which needs cleaning and the contamination present. These chemicals, unlike common household cleaners, may work with a dwell of as little as 30 seconds. We often deploy an Ozone Generator to remove odour within an environment rather than using air freshener which simply covers the odour for a short time. These are all aspects of our work which are a step further than that of a domestic cleaner, this allows us to tackle all aspects of extreme cleaning (cleaning beyond the capability of a domestic cleaner).
An extremely crucial aspect as well is insurance. We are insured specifically for the purposes of crime scene cleaning, extreme cleaning and, essentially, all aspects of cleaning which are not standard domestic cleaning. This allows us to focus on our specialist services and excel in their delivery.
Our work is specific to our field and has led us to be recognised as a top recommended business and a provider of the highest standards of service. With a variety of services available we are often undertaking work which includes cleaning properties prior to a person being discharged from hospital because their home is not safe for them to return to. We also provide after-death cleaning (or as we like to refer to it, bereavement cleaning) which returns a property to a hospitable and safe environment. Crime scenes, biohazards, extreme filth and grime, extremely dirty bathrooms, blood and all aspects of cleaning which a domestic cleaner is unable (or untrained) to help with are all daily aspects of our work.
Would you ever think of a need for a crime scene cleaner? There are many stories we could share, many tales of how we have helped and how we have seen some situations which would be beyond comprehension, and certainly many results of our work which you may not initially believe are possible. But with hard work, the right equipment and knowledge we are able to provide services which excel expectations consistently. This makes us proud to say, when asked, that “we are crime scene cleaners”.
In another blog article I go through a case study of a real life situation we attended, explaining the content of the original call through to the cleaning process, odour elimination and sanitisation provided.
