The CSI Effect

I can't imagine that anyone teaching basic investigation, crime scene management or intro forensics doesn't discuss it: the unrealistic expectations that the legal and civilian community have about our ability to locate, protect, preserve, document, process and analyze evidence at crime or incident scenes, based on what they saw on TV or the movies.  While I wish it was like on TV, with a smokin' hot partner and a $45,000 SUV filled with a $100,000 of hi-tech equipment, that, like always finding a parking space directly in front of the station or whatever address you are called to, just doesn't reflect reality.  It's far more likely we are going to have to crawl under a singlewide with a flashlight and a masonry trowel and pick through the trash until we find what we are looking for, while also discovering that all of the abode's waste plumbing flushes to the ground directly under the toilet and drains.

The NIJ has a new website that directly addresses the CSI effect and provides some tools and guidance for countering it:
CSI Effect Theory: Strategies and Views
Check it out and see what you think.