After an assault, a shooting or a homicide
Crime scene cleanup in Santa Maria
Detectives collect what they need and then they go. What is left in the room becomes the responsibility of whoever lives there or owns it. A cleanup company takes that over, so that no relative, roommate or employee has to.
Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
Police investigate. Cleaning is not their job
While officers are working, the room belongs to the investigation and nothing in it may be touched. When they are done they release the scene, usually by telling the owner or tenant in person. From that point you may go in, and you may bring a company in.
Inside the city, questions about a release go to the Santa Maria Police business line, (805) 928-3781. The Records Bureau on the same number, extension 2590, handles copies of reports. Keep the report number: an insurer or the state compensation board is likely to ask for it.
In Orcutt and the other unincorporated places around the city, the responding agency is the Sheriff's Office. Its Santa Maria Station is at (805) 934-6150 during office hours.
What is usually left behind
Blood on floors, walls and furniture is the obvious part. There is often more: dark fingerprint powder on doors and window frames, broken glass, damage from a forced entry, and stains that have run under baseboards or through carpet into the pad.
A cleanup company removes the materials that cannot be made clean, washes and disinfects what remains, and takes the waste away with it. It does not repair drywall, replace flooring or fix a door. Ask at the start where its work stops, so you know what a contractor or your landlord will need to pick up afterward.
The state can repay cleanup after a crime
California runs a compensation program for crime victims, and cleanup is one of the costs it recognizes. Three conditions decide whether it applies.
Where it happened
The benefit is for a crime that took place in a residence or a vehicle. The board’s own page states it that way.
Who did the work
The board repays only cleanup carried out by a company registered with the state health department as a trauma scene waste management practitioner. Check the registered list before you sign anything.
What it covers
Removal of biohazard material, up to a limit set in state law. It does not pay for damaged property such as a ruined sofa or a broken window.
Help with the application, in Santa Maria
You do not have to fill in the state forms alone. The District Attorney's Victim-Witness Assistance Program has an office at 312-D East Cook Street, and its advocates help victims and families apply. The direct number is (805) 346-7529. The office says legal residency is not required to use its services.
Our guide to who pays for cleanup covers insurance, landlords and estates as well.
Common questions after a crime
May I go into the room before it is cleaned?
Once it is released, yes, though there is rarely a good reason to. If you need medication, documents or keys from the room, tell the company and ask them to bring those out first.
It happened at my business. Is that different?
The cleanup is the same. The payment routes differ: the state benefit described above names a residence or a vehicle, so a business owner normally starts with the commercial insurance policy. And do not ask employees to clean it. California's workplace rule on bloodborne pathogens requires training and a written plan before staff handle blood.
Will the company need to speak with the detectives?
Not usually. They need to hear from you that the scene has been released, and they may ask for the report number for their paperwork.
Whenever suits you
Hand the room to people whose trade this is
Two sentences about the situation are plenty. You then hear how the firm would tackle it and what it would bill. Yes or no is yours alone to say, today or next week.
The number for Santa Maria and the valley
Whoever picks up belongs to a cleanup firm that takes jobs from Guadalupe up to Grover Beach. It is a separate business from this website. Name your town, say what sort of place it is, and ask anything.
Call (805) 362-1926Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
The call may be recorded. How this works is set out in the referral disclosure.