Crime Scene Cleanup: Help After a Violent Crime

What should you do right now?

You do not have to clean this up yourself. These steps protect your health and your claim while you line up help.

1. 1Make sure everyone is safe and has a place to stay tonight. If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 911 first.
2. 2Stay out of the affected rooms until police release the scene. Write down the officer's name and the case number.
3. 3Close those doors and leave the stains alone. Scrubbing or bleach can push blood deeper and spread it.
4. 4If you feel able, take a few photos from the doorway for insurance. If not, a cleanup crew can take them.
5. 5Call your insurer, and ask the police for a victim advocate. The advocate can explain your state's victim compensation program.
6. 6Ask a cleanup company for a walk-through and a written estimate. A friend can meet the crew so you never have to go back in.

Want this as a checklist for your situation? Try the first 24 hours planner.

Photos

The photos below are illustrations of the gear and setup crime scene crews often use, not pictures from real jobs.

How does the cleanup usually go?

Every scene is different, but most jobs follow a similar order.

1. 1

   First phone call

   The company confirms that police have released the property. You can ask for unmarked vans if privacy matters to you.

2. 2

   Walk-through and estimate

   The crew checks the affected area and nearby rooms to see how far blood spread. You get a written estimate of what will be cleaned and what will be removed.

3. 3

   Sealing off the area

   Plastic sheets go over doorways, and heating or cooling may be shut off for that area. This keeps dust and germs out of clean rooms.

4. 4

   Blood removal

   Hard surfaces are cleaned, then treated with a disinfectant that stays wet as long as its label requires. Carpet, drywall, or wood that blood soaked into is cut out and bagged.

5. 5

   Clearing police residue

   Fingerprint powder is very fine and spreads easily. The crew lifts it with fine-filter vacuums, then wipes each surface with a cleaner that will not harm it.

6. 6

   Waste and final check

   Bagged waste goes to a disposal site that accepts it. You or your helper get a walk-through, photos, and a written summary.

Choices about a crime scene are often made under stress, with little time and even less experience. Facts can help. They show how often these events happen, what cleanup tends to involve, and which health risks are on record. That turns a scary blank into something you can think through. Scale tells you if your case is unusual or common. Cost facts tell you if a quote deserves a second look. Health facts tell you why some shortcuts are risky. The figures here come from named public sources, not from the network's own claims. They are meant to help your talk with a checked provider, not to replace it.

30.5%

30.5% reported four or more different traumatic-event types.

Read with care: Recall and country differences; combined categories cannot be separated.

Source: Benjet et al. (2016)68,894 adults; 26 surveys in 24 countries; lifetime reports.

$70,000

Eligible California crime victims can receive up to $70,000 in total reimbursements for crime-related expenses through CalVCB.

Read with care: Cap covers all expense categories combined; cleanup is subject to its own lower sub-limit.

Source: California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB) (2022)California, overall per-claim cap as of July 2022

$4,869

Utah's Office for Victims of Crime paid $4,869 in crime scene cleanup expenses across all claims in its 2024 reporting year.

Read with care: Single state, single year; shows cleanup is a small share of total compensation outlays.

Source: Utah Office for Victims of Crime (2024)Utah, 2024 annual report period

2.34

Insurance disputes were associated with depression (aOR 2.34; 95% CI 1.4–3.9).

Read with care: Observational and self-selected; negative-comment denominator is comments, not all insured people.

Source: McKenzie et al. (2022)521 insured, inundated-household respondents from a 2,530-person survey six months after flooding.

$760,704,172

State VOCA-funded victim compensation programs paid $760,704,172 supporting 453,051 claims in federal fiscal years 2019-2020.

Read with care: Aggregate across expense types; OVC does not publish a national breakdown of cleanup payouts.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (2020)United States, all state compensation programs, FY2019-FY2020 combined

32.8%

Firearms were used in 32.8% of aggravated assaults reported to U.S. law enforcement in 2024, and knives or cutting instruments in 16.6%.

Read with care: FBI estimates are based on data from 16,675 agencies covering 95.6% of the U.S. population; expanded homicide details cover only victims with supplemental data reported.

Source: FBI (2024)United States, 2024, aggravated assaults with weapon data

These figures are public research and agency data, not this network's own job records. Keep each number with its population, year and limits; none of them predicts cost, timing or outcome at a specific property.

How do you choose a company you can trust?

Take a day to compare if you need it.

Checking a company you already have in mind? Work through the provider vetting checklist.

Free crime scene cleanup planning tools

Findings from published studies of people and properties in situations like this one. They describe what researchers observed in a specific group; they are not predictions for your case.

Common questions about crime scene cleanup