Crime scene cleanup requires the meticulous, careful, skilled, and intelligent handling, containment, disinfection, and cleaning of hazardous and non-hazardous biological wastes. It is a high-risk industry that not anyone can simply participate in. Crime scene cleanup companies have the heavy burden of ensuring everyone’s safety — from customers to employees. To venture into the business, you will need to comply with specific requirements. This post will discuss such essential requirements — for crime scene cleanup companies themselves and their employees.

Essential Requirements for Crime Scene Cleanup Companies

The US does not require crime scene clean-up companies and any after death cleanup company to register for a license before operation. However, permits must be obtained for every state that a company wishes to operate in. If your company will only be operating in one state, you only need to comply with the permits and local license requirements for such a particular state. If you’d be operating in 3 or 10 states, you’d need to process separate licenses and permits from such states. You will generally need to obtain the following:

1. Biohazardous Medical Waste Transporter Registration

This permit is necessary for the government to ensure that your company has the right capacity, skill, tools, and vehicles for the handling and transportation of hazardous medical wastes that will be collected from hospitals, crime scenes, and after death cleanups. 

2. Medical Waste Transportation Permit

You need this permit if you want to legally transport medical waste from one location to another. This permit will ensure that you have the right tools, skilled experts, and vehicles for the safe transport of dangerous medical waste that can be life-threatening.

3. Biomedical Waste Transporter Registration

You will be dealing with biomedical waste so you need to duly have your company registered as such. Such registration will ensure that the government will have the power to regularly check and evaluate your workflow protocols and operations. All businesses that deal with biomedical waste are strictly monitored by the government to always secure optimum safety for all.

4. Infectious Waste Transporter Permit

Crime scene cleanup companies will also deal with infectious waste and you need to have a permit for it. The permit will ensure that your company has the right training, skills, and expertise to seamlessly handle infectious waste. This permit is only given to highly qualified companies who have undergone the proper training of all field employees and experts. 

5. Hazardous Waste Transporter License Certificate

Crime scene cleanup companies need to have the proper certificate to legitimately transport hazardous waste. The transport of hazardous waste for profit is illegal if done without a license certificate. This regulation ensures that only qualified companies undertake the meticulous, careful, and expert handling of hazardous waste that can cause danger to all. Transport must always be done in a contained and safe manner.

6. Trauma Scene Waste Practitioner Permit

This is the most basic permit that is required of crime scene cleanup companies. This is necessary to ensure that only companies and experts with proper training, skills, and tools get to handle and contain waste from trauma scenes. Trauma scenes like suicide cleanups require a different level of care and safety protocols.

OSHA Standards

Apart from having required licenses and permits, all crime scene cleanup companies are also mandated to strictly comply with the guidelines, protocols, policies, and practice standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Essential Requirements for Crime Scene Cleanup Employees

Crime scene cleanup companies also need to ensure that all their employees duly comply with the following requirements:

1. Personal Background

All crime scene cleanup technicians are required to be physically fit and in good health at all times. Their job entails extreme work that demands both physical and mental strength. Their job is not a regular clean-up job as they will be dealing with hazardous waste that needs to be handled meticulously, carefully, and safely. All employees must also have clean criminal backgrounds to ensure no conflict of interest in future services.

2. Drug Test

All crime scene cleanup employees must also pass a drug test. This is to ensure that one is in tip-top shape to handle extremely traumatic and hazardous clean-up situations. To maintain employment, a regular random drug test must all be undergone.

3. Experience

Crime scene cleanup technicians do not necessarily need background experience in the same industry. It is enough that they have been fully trained and are experienced when it comes to dealing with forensics, emergency medicine, and public health. Experience in using various tools for clean-up and contained transport is also highly beneficial.

4. Education

Having a high school diploma or GED is enough for one to be qualified to work as a crime scene cleanup technician. The main thing that needs to be tended to is on-the-job training in the field. Reputable crime scene cleanup companies require technicians to undergo classes with certifications on airborne pathogens, hazardous materials transportation, blood-borne pathogens, hazardous waste generation, and personal protective equipment training.

Optimum safety at all times

Crime scene cleanup companies deal with matters that people don’t normally deal with daily. Any company or individual that will be participating in the field needs to not only be capable but fully qualified. To be qualified, one needs to simply ensure the government that optimum safety will be observed at all times by following strict health protocols.