PICTOU – The real world has a whole different look than the one projected by the crime fighters on CSI.
Cases in point are the investigations in the spate of serious motor vehicle crashes that took place in the county recently, including three fatal ones. They can't be wrapped up in a neat package in an hour or so.
"There's a lot more to it than that," Pictou County District RCMP Cpl. Andrew Joyce said. "We all wish it was that way," he added with a laugh.
"A whole lot of it is that it takes a while to correlate all the data.… There's a bunch of different partner agencies involved."
Cpl. Joyce said in the case of the recent fatal crashes they need to await reports from the traffic analysts, the mechanics who inspect the vehicles very closely and the medical examiner's office.
He said each agency has its own timeline for filing reports depending on their respective workload and the final report is issued accordingly.
The final report that the RCMP receives is usually from the medical examiner's office.
"I would think that's because of workload," he said.
On top of that there are witness statements that need to be taken.
"We need on-scene statements from witnesses that saw what happened before, after and during the crash. There's a lot of things that go into the report.… The final report can't be completed until we have the last one in."
Cpl. Joyce was on-scene commander at two of the fatal crashes and his duties in those instances are several.
"My duties are to make sure that all those pieces (of the on-scene investigation) are brought together."
He said the lead investigator is not necessarily the officer who first responds to the scene.
"It could be but it may not be. It depends on the circumstances at the time, what's going on on their investigational plate, what their foreseeable schedule is like."
