Our SART is struggling with this and I would like some ideas to take back to them. We've recently had different suspects in the ED during night shifts who had to wait until the nurse was done doing the victim exam to get their suspect exam done. The victim was in another part of the ER getting their exam done. The team claims the suspects and victims never saw each other and never knew each others were there. Is there a better place to have the suspects wait? I am under the impression that the best practice would be to not have them on the premises at the same time at all. We don't want to send the suspect home, say we'll call you when the victim has left, and risk them showering. There is no open police annex building at night, just 2 patrol officers patrolling the entire town, and a detective at home on call. I don't think we can make them wait at the jail or in the hospital's "holding cell" (aka locked waiting room for prisoners) if they are not under arrest. We're going to be discussing this at the SART meeting on Thursday and I wanted to hear what some other teams are doing. Thank you!
top of page
Read-Only Archives of the Legacy Colleague Cafe
November 2019 - April 2023
To Post New Topics, Please Go To: https://cafe.goafn.org
bottom of page
In the email chain Lisa I attached 2 documents from EVAWI on suspect exams.
barb
Our program is developing a plan to provide suspect exams. Any information or protocols will be helpful.
Great thank you. I see tons of males in my practice as I have over 15 correctional facilities in my area and do all of their PREAs.
FYI we are holding a male case review webinar at the end of July - details will be forthcoming. One case will be the male victim; the other case will be a male suspect and we will be discussing all the concerns that you raised above. I hope you can join us!
Nice! That worked out well. Barb
Thank you Barb. One of the suspects was voluntary, no court order. We discussed at the SART yesterday. The on call detective will have to come in and take the suspect to wait at the PD Annex offices until we call and say we are ready for them. That is our plan moving forward.
Rosalyn,
I had this happen when I worked in Michigan. The suspect and victim SHOULD not be at the hospital at the same time. Normally there is a warrant that LE must get before a suspect exam can be performed so someone from LE needs to help you in directing this and normal a LE officer should be accompanying the suspect to the facility where evidence collection takes place. Here are two documents from EVAWI website
on Suspect Exams.
See if there are any help.
Regards,
Barbra A. Bachmeier JD, MSN, APRN, NP-C, DF-AFN, FAEN
Advanced Practice Provider/Forensic Nurse
Indianapolis, IN