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Unit 6 Assignment B - Investigation Practices and Techniques
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Investigation Practices and TechniquesUnit 6
Assignment B
In this assignment I will be going over the different stages of an investigation, as well as
techniques the police can use to help these investigations, these can include things such as
ANPR and facial ID software. As well as this the importance and different techniques used
within the interview room whilst interviewing an offender/victim, and the comparisons
between such methods.
Stages of an Investigation
There are different stages an investigation can go through, each one of them involving
gathering and identifying useful evidence, securing statements from witnesses, and
preliminary and follow up investigating if a crime. It is important all stages of an investigation
are completed thoroughly, otherwise evidence may be missed, or not gathered correctly to
be taken to court, for example if a witness statement wasn’t gathered or included in the final
evidence, alibis could be missed or the sequence of events as to what happened could be
distorted, and for cases such as sexual assault that rely heavily on statements, it could
cause a crack in the case within a court setting.
Instigating an Investigation
There are two different approaches to a criminal investigation once it has been instigated,
either a reactive or proactive approach. Reactive instigation is when the police respond to a
crime that has already been committed, whether it was made through a call or witnessed. It
can also be the result of a re-investigation if new evidence comes to light. Whilst a crime is
being reported however, it is important (for example if it is a call being taken), that all the
material described that can help with an investigation, is retained and recorded and can then
subsequently be passed on. If this is not done accurately and information is initially missed,
the investigating officer could be missing information such as, who made the call, or what
happened, which can then in turn affect the process further down the line, or the opportunity
to question the person who reported the crime if they were a witness or a victim.
However, there’s also proactive investigation, this is where a crime can be prevented before
it becomes a major incident, or identifying individuals who are part of/involved in ongoing
criminal activity. The intelligence used to usually analyse these are from ‘tasking and
coordination (T&C) process’, which can include things such as:
● Network analysis
● Subject analysis
● Crime pattern analysis
● Criminal business analysis
This type of investigation is useful as it does help stop a reactive approach being taken,
which also saves money so it can be used for developing police equipment for example so
more investigations can be properly investigated. It also stops more harm from being done
on potential victims and also stops any offenders before major crimes are committed.
, The importance of the intial call
The initial call between both witnesses/victims of the police are when the investigation is
considered to have been started, it’s about gathering evidence, and extra information and
can help determine things such as the location of the crime, potential suspects, the rough
estimate of the time a crime occurred, and can help the caller know what to do next. It can
also help tell whether a crime has actually been committed, and to know whether an officer
needs to be brought down to the scene. This call is important as again, it can help determine
important information vital to assessing the current situation of the crime that has occurred,
and how major a crime it is, and how it is recorded (It can be recorded as an ‘incident
requiring no further action’ for example.)
Who takes on a case to investigate
After an initial call has been taken, it is then decided which jurisdiction is responsible for then
investigating the crime. This is important as a crime could have to be transferred to different
forces depending on where the victim lives, or where the crime took place. If you don’t know
what force is taking on a crime, the correct details about the crime can’t be transferred as
swiftly as possible, or it may be lost transferring around multiple police forces.
The ‘crime recording location will be determined by the location of the suspect at the time
they committed the offence.’, therefore also deciding the police force responsible for the
investigation. Whoever reported the crime or the victim must be kept in knowledge about
which force is responsible as well as any further action taken on a case, such as if the case
goes to court.
The intitial investigation and preliminary investigation
The initial investigation involves allocating the investigating officer, who could be the officer
who first responded to the crime, this is useful because it means the officer is present
throughout the enquiry and it can also help build a trust with a victim or witness, this is
because they were the initial person there to gather the evidence/statements, therefore it’s a
face the victim can recognise and go to for the entire investigation, compared to if the officer
kept changing, information might not be passed over correctly, the victim might become
apprehensive to disclose details again, and the overall picture of the crime will be split
between multiple officers, and a full clear picture will not be created as easily, it also means
in court more police have to be interviewed.
As well as this, specially trained officers can be deployed after the type of crime is
determined, for example, if it is a violent crime. This is good as it means the officer can
handle the situation in the most efficient way for that type of crime, and know how to speak
and interact with any witnesses or victim(s), in order to get the most information. It is vital
that material or evidence is not lost within the initial investigation, as there could not be many
opportunities to gather evidence within a case. If a different investigator is has been
allocated, all information must be passed over, or in court certain evidence or details could
be lost which is vital for, for example, establishing if a suspect alibi is correct (if they were in
a location and the location of the crime or time wasn’t passed over or recorded) and really
affect the reliability of the rest of the evidence collected if it has been handled poorly.
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