What is the immediate concern regarding evidence at a crime scene?

The immediate concern regarding evidence at a crime scene is to maintain the integrity of the evidence. This is crucial because the value of evidence lies in its ability to accurately represent the facts of the crime. Maintaining integrity means ensuring that the evidence is collected, preserved, and analyzed in a way that prevents contamination, alteration, or loss. If evidence is compromised, it could lead to unreliable conclusions, affect the investigation, and ultimately impact legal proceedings.

While collecting evidence in a timely manner is also important, it is the preservation of the evidence's integrity that directly affects its usefulness and reliability in an investigation and in court. Other concerns, such as how evidence is presented in court or categorizing it into distinct types, are secondary processes that revolve around the foundation established by maintaining the evidence's integrity at the crime scene.