Ordinarily, only trained professionals carry out the documentation of forensic information because improper collection of such information properly may compromise its integrity and usability. However, unofficial investigators can photograph all items that may provide useful information to professional investigators. Unofficial investigators can also record the location of any artifacts on the crime scene sketch. Unofficial investigators should try to find a trained professional to document the forensic information. Only if it is not possible to find a trained professional to document the forensic information, and only if it is safe to do so (see Section 2.2.1 on Risk Assessment), may unofficial investigators secure artifacts, provided that they otherwise run the risk of being lost permanently. In order to properly secure artifacts, unofficial investigators must: • Wear gloves. • Place each object into an individual bag. • Include a slip of paper in the bag with the object describing the item in detail; the date on which the first person collected it, where they collected it, and any person who subsequently handled it. • Sign and date the paper. • Seal the bag. • Sign the bag. It is important that every person that comes in contact with the bag be registered. 123 • Items like clothes, sheets, etc., with biological traces (such as DNA) should always be preserved in breathable or paper sealable bags in order to prevent DNA destruction. If they are enclosed in a plastic bag or completely airtight contained they rot and the DNA is destroyed. • Items containing fresh body fluids (blood, semen, saliva, etc.) should also be placed in such breathable bags to be able to “breath” until they dry. That prevents them also from rotting and the DNA from being destroyed. • In general, low temperatures help the preservation; however, it is not mandatory to keep this kind of items in the freezer. The 123 Morten Bergsmo and William Wiley, Human Rights Professionals and the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution of Core International Crimes, in MANUAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING: AN INTRODUCTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS FIELD OFFICERS, 15 (3rd ed., 2008), available at http://www.casematrixnetwork.org/fileadmin/documents/M._Bergsmo_and_W.H._Wiley__Human_Rights _Professionals_and_Criminal_Investigation__NCHR_Manual__10__pp._1-29.pdf. 91