Homicides happen, unfortunately, and they need to be cleaned up after. It takes a special person, or company, to be able to clean up after such an incident. You need special training and certification to be able to do it and it takes great compassion, as well.
There are many places that do homicide cleanup, believe it or not. You can put Columbus OH Homicide Cleaning into your favorite search engine and come up with at least a few of them. Make sure that you read the online reviews before choosing one so that you get someone who knows what they are doing.
This article will tell you some of the things a homicide cleaner will do for you. It will tell you some of the things that you didn’t know they did. If you need more information, you can always do more research.
Homicide Cleanup Professionals
- They Do More than Crime Scenes – There are other scenes that they clean up after such as unattended deaths and suicides. Homicides are only a fraction of the calls that they come out for:https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/drumoorhouse/crime-scene-cleaners-questions-job. Usually, a homeowner, apartment manager, or hotel manager will call the homicide cleanup company after they have discovered a dead body.
- Ex Military and Ex Law Enforcement – Ex-military or ex-lawmen are the ones who usually take these types of jobs. They have usually had the experience to deal with the kind of things that they run into. They know how to process the scene without compromising it.
- Training Can Use Pig Blood – There aren’t many certifications that you can get to do this job, but some of them require the use of pig blood to train people. Departments use a variety of bloods, including stage blood and pig blood. These centers recreate real crime scenes so that the trainees will know the proper ways to clean up.
- Scene Can Spread Beyond the Body – Depending on how long the body has been there, the scene can spread way beyond the body. It can seep into the floor, the carpeting, even the subfloors. All this needs to be cleaned thoroughly so that the smell is even taken care of. The smell is the most difficult thing to get rid of.
- Next Level Cleaning Supplies –Before the actual cleanup, every little thing needs to be picked up. Every little spot also needs to be found so that everything can be cleaned. The company uses industrial strength cleaners and supplies to clean up – regular, everyday cleaners won’t work.
- They Can Sometimes Mitigate the Smell – They can’t always mitigate the smell, but they have means to do so in most cases. Every worker must wear personal protective equipment, or PPE, when they come into an area, but that doesn’t always lessen the smell. There are deodorizers, HEPA filters, and air scrubbers that are used to remove the smell.
- They Don’t Like Seeing Cats on the Worksite – This is because the cats will pee on the scene and that leaves another odor to clean. Cat spray is the one of the most difficult odors to clear up – dog odors aren’t nearly as bad. Cat urine will often crystalize making it difficult to clean up. Learn more about this here.
- Turnover Rate is High – Because of the nature of the job, the turnover rate is very high. The workers see the worst of the worst on a daily basis and the psychological toll is horrible. Owners are lucky if they have workers that last five years.
- Workers Often Act Like Counselors – Since homicide cleaners are often among the first to arrive at the scene, they often act as unofficial counselors to the homeowners, families, and friends. This often means that they need to listen to stories about the deceased and maybe even how they died. This can be another reason the turnover rate is so high; the cleaners can’t handle listening to this day in and day out.
- They Need Counselors Themselves – Because of the issues that they deal with, workers often need counselors themselves. Many companies will provide paid counseling to their workers because they know this is an issue. These trips to the counselor are often private and confidential so that the workers’ privacy can be saved.
Conclusion
Homicide cleanup is not for the average person – it is a job that not many people can handle. Most workers are former military or law enforcement workers because they have usually dealt with this type of thing. Even then, the turnover rate is very high.
The cleaners need to use industrial type supplies to clean up after deaths. Workers need to wear personal protective equipment to protect themselves. There are other industrial tools to clean up because normal tools won’t work. The workers often work long hours to clean up after a dead body is found.
