Clean-up after the crime

Crime scenes can be horrific places, with blood, body fluids and damage everywhere. When the crime scene tape comes down, what happens next? LET takes a look behind-the-scenes of crime scene cleanup, to see what happens when the police leave.

A fairly new industry

Until only a few decades ago the aftermath of a crime scene was left up to whomever was responsible for the location. Then, in the early 1990s, companies were established to serve this need.

“I founded my company in 1996,” recalls Neal Smither, president, Crime Scene Cleaners Inc. in Orlando, Calif. “I was 28 and going nowhere…but I knew that I wanted to be self-employed. I was watching ‘Pulp Fiction’ and the scene where they had to clean a crime scene came on, and I started thinking about who did it and researched it and realized very few people were doing it—in the entire nation, only about six companies. Within 12 months of starting, California regulated biohazard cleanup and disposal.”

11th Hour Clean, which is based in Minnesota but serves a six-state area, was founded in 2005 by owners Jake Schech and Josh Hanken. “We were doing water and fire restoration and transitioned into crime scene cleanup,” explains Schech. “We are certified by the American Biorecovery Association. When we started, it was a new industry and a lot of cleaning companies were looking into it. We do all kinds of biohazard work, and 50 to 60 percent is crime scene cleanup.”

How it gets done

Companies are contracted a number of different ways. Many times law enforcement refers companies to victims’ families, but oftentimes calls come out of the blue by people who are desperately searching for a way to clean up a tragedy and have found contact information on the Internet.

“A few police departments have lists of companies and they will recommend companies they know, but there aren’t many that do this,” says Schech. “Most often, it’s a family member or the property owner that has to figure it out and they call us. The police have separated from this industry because they don’t want to be responsible. The communication can get a bit difficult, dealing with the next of kin who is still grieving. We offer free consultations, and we’ll do it over the phone or we’ll drive out to explain the process. It’s important to have families understand how it works.

“For us, it’s about offering compassionate services to our clients, being empathetic and understanding due to the gravity of dealing with the crime scene,” he says. “We are the first line in the healing process. No family member should have to clean up after a traumatic event. In addition, they would not be able to clean a crime scene effectively and safely. Just talking about it, family members relive the event, so we care for their emotions. Most companies can’t do this job efficiently.”

Crime Scene Cleaners does work for many different police departments, cleaning jail cells, police cars, restraints and uniforms, traffic accidents and deaths…and this leads to referrals. “Our clients are generally in the middle of a very traumatic experience and they don’t know what to do. They have a huge mess and we are able to quickly and quietly clean it and get out of their way,” says Crime Scene Cleaners’ Smither. “We get a lot of repeat business from property owners and management companies. Our product is unusual, but it’s like any other business: you have to work it, provide great service, and do it at a great price. Having said that, the work has turned out to be pretty rewarding.”

How bad is it?

Sometimes the crime scenes are horrific and the pressure to clean it up is immediate. “It takes a very unique, hardened, cynical, smart, detail oriented person to do this job for any amount of time,” acknowledges Smither. “It’s all-consuming and there is no bend or sway from our clientele. You can either respond or you can’t. At a certain point, you don’t want to do it anymore. The workload is incredible, and it is a 24/7 kind of job.”

This kind of work is extremely difficult, both physically and emotionally. “Wearing all the gear—fully encapsulated bio-suits, back filters, etc.—makes for extremely humid conditions, and it’s very labor intensive,” says 11th Hour’s Schech. “Most people think you have to just mop; it’s really heavy lifting and power tools. On top of this, it completely takes over your life.

“For a lot of people, the work itself is really challenging,” he continues. “You don’t become desensitized, you just become more aware of it. There is a stench that most people can’t bear. A lot of technicians have lost their lunch because of it, but there is very little we haven’t seen. We are never really shocked anymore.”

Why do people do this?

Someone has to and the companies that can respond quickly and compassionately succeed. It’s a unique mixture of empathy and efficiency.

“I take pride in the fact that we are part of the healing process,” says 11th Hour’s Schech. “...I have experienced tragedy in [my] family, and knowing that people were out there who could help meant something. The work never gets boring, there is something new every day. We can go two or three days without a job, but then we can be gone for weeks at a time. We are there for people in their darkest hour.

When we do hoarding jobs, for example, we can see the drastic change in people’s lives. It’s all rewarding.”

The best and the worst

Some of the jobs are horrific and even dangerous. “At an unattended death job site, the next of kin attempted to kidnap me,” 11th Hour’s Schech says. “We were busy cleaning it up. The guy was the son and he had some mental problems, and he kept coming back every 30 minutes…then came back and sat in the car and I went over to see if I could help him. He had a gun and he told me to get into the car. I took off into the woods, and called the police. They came and arrested him. About a month later I got a call from the family apologizing for the incident.

“Any job that involves kids or the elderly is difficult,” he continues. “We did a triple homicide in a day care facility, for example. For the FBI, we cleaned a vehicle where a girl was raped and killed—these kinds of jobs can be really difficult emotionally. Every job is different.”

Smither enjoys working with law enforcement. “Working with the police is super interesting,” he says. “Most law enforcement officers are smart and motivated. It’s very interesting watching them do their jobs. What I have learned over the years is that if you are a criminal, you better be a good one or you are going to get caught. For our traffic incidents, it’s amazing the detail they go into and the speed at which they do it. The public doesn’t get to see how impressive these guys are.

At the same time, law enforcement can be very difficult to deal with. They don’t understand that their vendors are not law enforcement, that we can’t be somewhere in 15 minutes. We try to respond in an hour, but with traffic that can be very challenging.”

Price and competition

What started as a bit of a cottage industry has become a highly competitive industry that is heavily regulated from a safety perspective.

“In California alone, there are more than 400 companies,” Smither says. “There are a lot of different market factors that dictate success and you never know how serious a company is going to take the business. Are they going to treat it as a business or are they doing it for the thrill? I have millions invested in this business, with personnel and equipment and trucks. We are the McDonald’s of blood and we are a business like any other.”

There is no average cost for cleaning up a crime scene, as every job is different. “For biohazard work, there is an industry standard rate, but it depends on the job type,” 11th Hour’s Schech says. “The cost includes clean up, disposal, the number of technicians needed, the equipment used and more. It can be very expensive, depending on the nature of the scene, but most of the expense is covered by insurance.

“We have a victim assistance fund that will help cover the cost of the deductible,” he continues. “If there is a homicide or a suicide, the last thing the family should have to deal with is expenses associated with cleaning it up. If the victim doesn’t have insurance, we have extremely reduced rates for them. These services are expensive, but we try to help the customer as much as we can.”
So far, crime scene cleanup is a localized industry, with no real national players. Response time and expertise are the biggest issues, so even the national companies are just referral services to local companies.

“There are a lot of fire and water restoration companies, but there aren’t a lot of companies that are exclusively biohazard and crime scene,” says Schech of 11th Hour.

Crime scene cleanup is a tough, challenging and all-consuming job. Thank goodness there are companies available to help people in their hour of need.