Caution Tape

If you see yellow crime scene tape around a house or scene, it means that something bad has happened. Some will say “POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS” or “CAUTION,” and both warnings seem easy to understand. Why would anyone want to go through the tape and into a crime scene or dangerous area? But there’s more at stake here than your safety. You could be arrested for interfering, hindering, and opposing a police officer if you cross caution tape that has been deployed by the police. And you could get up to two years in prison.

Barricade tapes are used in a variety of situations where safety is a major concern. It’s used to mark high-risk or restricted areas, which can include but may not be limited to:

• Containment Areas— Used in combination with abatement tapes to build containment systems in areas that have been blocked off so additional security can be added.
• Construction Job Sites— Used to warn against or block off dangerous areas and equipment, which can help to prevent accidents and injuries that occur in this industry every single day.
• Law Enforcement and Emergency Personnel— Used by firefighters to isolate areas after a fire and by police officers to control traffic in a specific area.
• Crime Scenes— People in the fields of forensics and law enforcement use caution tape to keep people from tampering with crime scenes, so the validity of their investigation is protected.

Barricade tapes are there to keep people safe, so it’s a critical part of blocking off and warning against dangerous areas.

Also called “warning tape,” caution tape is a type of plastic tape with a yellow-black combination, which is designed to capture the attention of people who look at it. It’s used to secure crime scenes by letting people know that entry will be refused to people who aren’t authorized to be in the area. It creates a blockade around a crime scene as a way to prevent contamination and to make sure its integrity is protected while the investigation is underway.

Red crime scene tape is used to mark “red zones” within a larger security area that’s being controlled by standard yellow tape. This is useful for limiting traffic around sensitive evidence while still keeping a larger area more secure.

When the police tape off a house or any other area, it means that something bad has happened. And it’s meant to prevent contamination of a crime scene while an investigation is being conducted. There may also be certain areas that are potentially dangerous to the general public.

If you’re looking for one of the best places for caution tape or any other product, be sure to browse through the broad selection we have at Engineer Supply.