What are the officer’s responsibilities during preliminary investigation?
Preliminary investigations entail various processes such as collecting, preparing, preserving, and analyzing the evidence found in efforts to find out whether a crime happened. The information obtained is used to assist the offender and to find solutions to the crime. Therefore, preliminary investigations occur at the early stages of the process of a criminal investigation. There are many officers’ roles during a preliminary investigation because this forms the first stages of an investigation. The officers heading to the crime scene are supposed to remain alert to ensure that everything that needs to be confirmed is done. The officer’s first thing is to ensure that those with injuries at the scene are checked. The officer provides first aid to the victims, starting with those with the most severe injuries, even if the individual is the suspect.
The officer in charge of the preliminary investigation has the mandate to make a complete, accurate, and well-documented report of the incident based on the investigative department’s procedures. If any of the persons at the scene have injuries that require hospital treatment, the officer contacts then dispatch a team to provide the immediate required medical assistance. Thus, the first role of the officer arriving at the scene is to find how medical services are to be provided. The officer takes charge of communicating with the dispatch team to send them information such as the nature of the crime, a full suspect’s description, a description of any items or materials found at the crime scene, and many more. Also, the officer’s role is to arrest the perpetrator. This can be done at the scene if the suspect is present, or he or she can be pursued later.
Another function of the officer is to preserve the evidence gathered at the scene. This justifies why a crime scene is preserved to avoid losing any physical evidence when a crime occurs. The officer also searches for any item that may be used as evidence of the crime. The officer in charge of preliminary investigations also looks for witnesses and ensures that they remain at the crime scene for an interview. He or she separates the witnesses to not agree on what to say about the crime. Finally, after doing all the above, the officer doing preliminary investigation writes an accurate report about every microscopic information gathered at the crime scene.
Compile a list of some of the essential items to ask about when helping a witness describe a suspect.
- What did you witness at the scene?
- What time did the incident occur, and how long did it last?
- Who was involved in the scene, and where specifically did it occur?
- What did the people engaged do?
- Was there a car at the crime scene?
- What was the color of the car?
- Did the suspect have a beard?
- Was the perpetrator tall, short or medium height?
- How can you disrobe the body size of the perpetrator?
- Where did the victim come from?
- Where did the perpetrator leave?
- Did you talk to the perpetrators?
- Can you describe what they did at the crime scene?
- Did anybody else in the surrounding witness what happened?
- What was your next move after witnessing the incident?
- Did you talk with the people involved after witnessing the behavior?
- How did the subject and the complainant respond to your actions?
- Did you make a report of the incident? When? To whom? Where? What did they say?
- Did you tell anyone else? How did they react?
- Do you know somebody else who can provide more information about the incident?
- Do you know why such an incident would have happened?
- Who else saw the happenings of the crime scene?
- Is there additional information that you would like to give me to help me identify the suspects?
How does an officer determine whether photographic identification or lineup identification should be used to identify a suspect?
Photographic lineup or identification is an essential investigative tool used by the officers doing an investigation, with the witnesses’ help to determine whether the pictures prove the real suspects of a crime. A photo lineup is used in investigations as a procedure in law enforcement. It helps in the confirmation of the physical identity of a suspect. On the whole, an officer displays various photographs to a witness or a victim and inquires whether he or she identifies one of the displayed individuals shown in the photographs as suspected criminals or perpetrators. The officer uses a suspect’s positive identification as identified by the witness. The suspect is then placed under arrest. This act of identification by the officer can be utilized later as evidence during the defendant’s prosecution.
Investigative officers may, at times, experience challenges using photo lineups. This because suggestive photos are displayed in some situations, and this can lead to a wrongful conviction. It means that a photo lineup should not be done in a manner that necessarily shows the suspect. If a photo lineup is suggestive, tentatively, an affirmation of the suspect’s identification may be removed from the subsequent prosecution. Therefore, officers can determine if a photo lineup can identify a suspect by evaluating every photograph to ascertain that none of them is suggestive. Avoidance of suggestive photographs is one of the ways that officers can use to apprehend the right individual. On this note, the officers may also ask the witness to view more than one photo lineup having the suspect to distinguish whether the witness can recognize the suspect from a collection of photographs.
Moreover, for better effectiveness, a photo lineup should contain many photographs showing different persons who share certain similarities with the suspect. More importantly, officers do not arrange the photo lineups that they intend to display to the witnesses due to public safety reasons. In certain instances, officers have used only one photo of a suspect. However, certain Supreme Courts have often ruled out that it is ineffective to use only one photo in identifying a suspect. Therefore, when used properly, photo lineups become a useful tool for the identification of suspects.
What are the recognized exceptions in which investigators are permitted to conduct a search without obtaining a warrant?
Commonly recognized exceptions include if the investigators have been granted a voluntary and free consent provided by an individual with expectations of maintenance of privacy. An officer may also not require a warrant if the evidence is located in a plain view. Additionally, investigators may do this in search of incidents to arrest a criminal and also in exigent measures such as where other people are put in danger or if the evidence is likely to be destroyed. Another exception is when investigators are in “hot pursuit” of a criminal who intends to fly or run away.
Imagine you’re at the scene of a homicide. The victim was murdered on the sidewalk in front of a public building on a busy street. Briefly record the photographs you need to take and in what order they should be taken.
Taking photographs at the homicide scene would help in the identification of the way the particular incident occurred. In this case, I would capture a close-up photograph to provide an impression of the homicide scene. I would take a photograph of the person murdered and how it was done and the exact scene at the sidewalk in front of the building. After that, I would proceed to capture the surrounding area of the scene.
Imagine you are at the scene of a car accident involving two vehicles and a pedestrian. What evidence would you sketch?
I would sketch how the traffic flow was moving until the two vehicles got into an accident. I would also provide a sketch of the pedestrian’s position as at the time the accident occurs and the direction the pedestrian was coming from. These sketches will help in trying to find out what may have caused the accident.
What are some characteristics of effective investigators?
Effective investigators must exercise professionalism at all times because this is the only way to ensure that they keep the right track of what is expected of them. They have an analytic mindset and a high sense of curiosity, enabling them to collect relevant and adequate information. Effective investigators avoid the “group thinking” attitude, whereby they do not overlook a particular theory over another one. They also have a strong sense of integrity, which enables them to remain focused on their job. To add, these investigators have effective coping strategies regardless of the time taken and the nature of their working environment. Also, effective investigators display strong communication skills when dealing with different suspects. They need these skills to carry out a proper evaluation of the crime done.