Question Two: A critique of McDevitt’s Book
McDevitt’s book is a well-written and useful publication for learners, people with interest or managers in the administration of their respective investigative unit. Fundamentally, there is plenty of useful information in the book.
To begin with, the author highlights how efficacy can be increased amid the investigative officers and how resources can be used to make investigations better. These are very important points because they assist a lot of people in a number of ways. Chiefly, the management of resources is perhaps the single biggest hurdle in management of investigations. Generally, investigations require a lot of funds to proceed. On the same note, they involve travelling and a lot of field
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Understandingly, patrol officers are usually more involved in the security of the crime scene than in collecting evidence from it. More often than not, this is left within the ambit of the investigative officers. Therefore, the suggestion by the author that they should be featured in the investigations and even allowed to conclude the investigation in some cases not make any substantive sense. Actually, the author adduces several evidence and highlights on this issue. In fact, this point of view makes more sense for the patrolling officer who arrives at the scene of crime first to begin the investigations immediately compared to the investigating officer who may arrive later on. Obviously, delays in the start of investigations may result in the loss or destruction of some evidence such as scent. Having the patrol officers to participate in the investigations can; therefore, result in efficacy within the criminal investigations process. On the other hand, patrol officers are not sufficiently informed about investigative matters and this can prove to be faulty where the officer is allowed to proceed with the investigations without background knowledge on it. Viewed differently, having patrol officers as investigators may even culminate in inefficacy because their paucity in specialized knowledge may result in the stall of the …show more content…
Certainly, this perspective is important in a situation where the number of investigative officers is limited. However, this is not entirely true in most situations. In reality, the number of investigative officers is usually sufficient to handle the crimes that are reported. Concerning the issues of time, it would be prudent of the author to only suggest that the arrival time of the investigators should be prompt to facilitate faster collection of evidence but not that the patrol officers should take it upon themselves to begin the investigations. The author repeats this point in a number of sections. Seemingly, the author has a certain bias towards extending favorable treatment towards the patrol
According to Victoria Police (2015), an investigator is “a person who is employed or retained to obtain and furnish information for the nature of the business or occupation of any person or alternatively
In a criminal investigation, there is the need to break down two things. Firstly, the investigation itself and secondly the investigator involved. It is of utmost importance that the criminal investigation is done accurately, failure to do so will have negative consequences on the society. Investigation involves the collection of facts, scenarios and situations which are directly or indirectly related with the case. Whereas investigator is the person who should observe, question, analyze and scrutinize the available details. Careful evaluation then helps to achieve the much needed evidence. Criminal investigation is one of the most essential functions of the Law Enforcement agencies, as it is their prime responsibility to maintain a secure environment and
Although all employees should be assets to their organization, certain employees, because of their respective strengths and talents, may be better suited for certain tasks. In the organization I where I work, the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office, there are several individuals who would be both happier and better suited for different areas of criminal investigations. Several problems persist within the organization that prevent both the agency and the individuals employed by it from achieving their full potential. While there are a host of departments within my organization, the focus of this essay will be on the Criminal Investigations Division in which I work. I will also include a few thoughts on the administrative structure of my department, address some of its problems and offer my own solutions for overcoming these
The book gives a general overview of the field of forensic science. The sections of the book include “The Scene of the Crime; Working the Scene--The Evidence; Working the Scene of the Body Human;
The body of this paper will examine the case of Pamela Foddrill and compare what happened in that real criminal investigation to the theory of criminal investigation discussed in our course textbook, Criminal Investigation: The Art and the Science. I will first examine the forensics evidence and
Over the years, there have been ethical concerns over the works of undercover policemen both to the officers and those under study. The most essential to the system is the manner in which information is obtained and the more controversial is the means with which such information are obtained. Most laws have provisions that require undercover police and any other person within the
Upon the first 30 minutes into work today, my superiors gave me the task of creating a policy on the investigation of officers within a 24-hour notice. Now how in the world was I supposed to do this task in short period of time? Needless to say, I forgot all about Internal Affairs may already have the necessary information I’m looking for in the first place. Any deliberation may circle about the environment and harshness of the responsibility as well as the worker’s previous working profile. I would ensure that this policy conforms to the basic considerations presented in the Garrity case by explaining the history of the case, and challenge each student by asking questions until I gave each of them a fair exam. Prior to the examination, I would
Analysis- officers working the well-defined problem seek Intel on the crimes from public and private sources. Not using the Intel that you would find in the system but the officer actually seeking out a more community
The police serve as the initial point of contact for crimes, generally speaking, because they operate on the front lines. Even if we assume that the police do not catch the criminal red-handed, in their duty to promote public safety, the police will typically be responsible for following a set of pre-trial, investigative procedures that aim to yield identification of the perpetrator. Their main function in pursuit of this goal is to find out what happened overall by determining all facts and collecting all information relevant to the case. Most commonly, the police will rely upon eyewitness identification and testimony as the primary means to identify suspects. For instance, eyewitnesses can be brought to a local police department and led into a room, where a photo lineup of possible suspects takes place (O’Connor, 2010).
Over the years, the nature of policing has changed and developed drastically. Their role not only entails crime fighting and emergency response, but also social enforcement and social peacekeeping. Bound by a code of ethics, this highly demanding role asks police to remain professional in their dealings with society, and ensure they uphold the law impartially and fairly. When it comes to enforcing the law, it is important to look at the methods and approaches taken by police in order to combat crime, and whether or not they meet current ethical standards. Although this may be the case, it is also important to acknowledge that aspects of police culture such as loyalty, deception and protection of colleagues will ultimately shape the nature of approach to resolving crime, gaining helpful information and protecting fellow officers. Police officers are granted large amounts of discretion within their roles, however, when officers deliberately abuse this amount of discretion and become display misconduct, it becomes challenging to limit discretionary authority of police officers because of the frequent circumstances they encounter where deception may provide highly constructive outcomes. Throughout this essay, methods used by police officers including entrapment, wiretapping and planting of evidence will be assessed for their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the ethical standards of these methods and approaches will be assessed as to whether or not they prove as ethically
In the Bronx, there are countless of unsolved crime at the police department precinct, just waiting to be solved. However, due to the shortage of policeman power in the precincts located in the Bronx, and with many detectives with a caseload of about 300 to 400 cases per year, it’s impossible for the detectives to keep-up. According to the deployment analysis obtained by The New York Times most of the detective have a caseload of twice as the recommended for precincts with such high violence rate with the department. “The Times's deployment analysis grew out of a series of articles about murder in the 40th Precinct, a two-square-mile section of the South Bronx, where three detectives last year carried more than 400 cases and many others had loads in the high 300's, markedly more than the 150 cases per year the department recommends for precincts with high rates of violent crime.”
The Chief of police may use discretion in a criminal investigation by deciding that some information should not be shared with the public. In addition, the Chief of police might even give a decision on which information to be shared to the public. The duty of the Chief of police is to protect the public and so while making decisions, he has to be careful of the information the public should know. One of the most important duties of the Chief of Police is to re-assure the public of their safety and so, he cannot comprised their safety by allowing certain information that could harm them reach them. Therefore, while trying to keep the public safe and trying to inform them of the investigations about criminal activities in their community without causing them panic, he/she will make sure that the details that reaches them are limited so that f there are more criminals among them, they are brought to book. In addition, the Chief of Police will give limited information so as to save the public from more criminal activities, and to save their lives. For example, maybe there have been numerous murder cases in a community, and evidence is found at
Police officers must routinely and systematically investigate problems before trying to solve them, just as they routinely and systematically investigate crimes before making and arrest. Individual officers and the department as a whole must develop routines and systems for investigating problems.
Propose one (1) strategy that criminal investigators should take in order to conduct and contrast the key differences in reporting the two major crimes that you selected. The follow up investigation should be conducted in methodized manner, just as was the preliminary investigation, so as to not disturb the crime scene. The investigator should be verified by the primary police officer before the investigation. The investigator may also want to speak with the victim, witnesses, to verify upon information obtained by the primary officer, before processing the crime scene or contacting the crime scene unit.
Nothing is more crucial to any investigation than the actions of the first officers on the scene and the actions they take regarding the preservation of the crime scene, detention of witnesses and an arrest if possible. The immediate objective of the first officers on the scene must be the safety of all parties involved and all else follows