Accountability and Effectiveness for Investigators Investigators usually have the freedom to go as they please, whenever they get a new lead or they are going to interview a witness. They often leave without having to inform their supervisor where they are going. This can be problematic if the investigator abuses this privilege of autonomy and uses the freedom to do personal things while they are supposed to be working. There has got to be some kind of accountability for the investigators without hampering their creativity and imaginations in the investigation (McDevitt 2005). When supervising investigators the amount of accountability needed for the investigator has to be a balanced accountability. The supervisor must know their investigators and how they react to certain rules and regulations when it comes to their investigations and their job. If a supervisor is expecting one of their investigators to always be able to inform them of where they are, and what they are doing. They will likely cause them to feel constrained and they may end up with problems. If the supervisor gives their investigators too much freedom then they might have investigations not get finished, they may have trouble accounting for the time on the job, and thus trouble getting more funding for new advances in investigative technologies. There are a couple of different ways to have the investigator account for his or her time. One of those ways is by filling out their time sheet daily, but this could cause them to feel like they are not trusted and being watched constantly (McDevitt 2005: 65). Filling out a time sheet daily to account for your investigation could be very helpful when filling out the paperwork at the end of the investigation. It will prob... ... middle of paper ... ...rengthen the unit in all types of investigations, because it does not hurt for the investigators to be capable of investigating all crimes if needed (McDevitt 2005). The key point in supervising an investigative unit is having control over the unit, but not in a micro-managing way. To be able to let your investigative team have freedom to explore the means necessary to solve crimes and to be able to trust their judgment, it is not necessary to watch every single move they make. It is necessary to know what they are doing and how good they are at certain investigations in order to make your unit as effective as possible. Knowing your team and understanding how they work will help your managing of them and it will also make you and your team more effective. Works Cited McDevitt, Daniel S. 2005 Managing the Investigative Unit Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas
The individuals within our society have allowed we the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflict with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, resides in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order.
The five different types of power cannot be implemented in every unit; instead different policies need to put in place within different units for effective administration power. According to Tifft (1978) different units of a police force permit different types of power to be developed (Stojkovic et al, 2008). Coercive and legitimate power can be observed in a patrol sergeant because the unit’s specific duties, whereas a tactical unit shows extreme levels of referent, expert, and legitimate power due to the unique structural design and activities (Stojkovic et al, 2008). For example, in a police agency detective units would benefit greatly if sergeants had previous experience in the unit, due to the fact that expert power and knowledge is essential to the sergeant’s role (Stojkovic et al, 2008). Since knowledge of methods of common crimes gives the sergeant necessary information that is valued and respected by subordinate detectives, it is essential for police administrator to implement people in the unit who have had experience as detectives (Stojkovic et al, 2008). Thus, the social bases of power differ between organizations and structural characteristics affect the s...
Collaboration is the game changer. Everyone is connected to one another and have interests in the police department of their state. A fully collabor...
In today’s time, modern Crime Scene Investigation has increased rapidly. From throughout the late 1900’s and in the early 2000’s (Taylor 1). For all of the evidence that they find, a solid foundation has formed over the thousands of years of Crime Scene
833), as well as polygraph examinations (p. 835). However, when individuals slip through these tests and into the police force other safeguards are needed to stop individuals from taking advantage. According to Rudy many officers do not like working with misconduct so they will report it if there are major problems (personal communications, November 11, 2015). Misconduct makes other officers look bad as well as the precinct so if there are rotten apples in an otherwise good group they would get reported. However, if an individual does something stupid/ minor police may not necessarily report that officer, because it is like if you see someone cheating on a quiz, you don’t always tell on them, how would that make you look (Rudy, personal communications, November 11, 2015)? With officer reporting they also have warning systems set in place to detect possible misconduct, which might help more in terms of the organized misconduct. These systems keep track of each officer in terms of statistics such as citizen complaints or overtime hours logged. To many citizen complaints can raise suspicion because if they are doing their job correctly, an officer should be making the general public happy. While with overtime, too much of it can mean that the officer is worn out, or having personal troubles such as needing more money (Rudy, personal communications, November 11, 2015). Both of these may influence an officer, making him much more likely to commit misconduct. So monitoring this can alert higher authorities to
In Florida, every law enforcement official uses the tools of planning, management, and evaluation. For example, a patrol officer plans how to cover a beat, makes rounds or manage activities, and evaluates how they did at the end of the day. An officer plans what to do and how to do it before taking action. Unfortunately, this same approach is not consistently applied in police agencies and security operations as a whole. In fact, although a certain degree of planning is usually conducted by all prevention organizations, the major emphasis has traditionally been on the management and evaluation of an officers work; every sergeant knows to manage a police force in such a way that the commander will conclude that they are doing a good job. The major purpose of the discussion that follows is to provide crime prevention personnel information about planning, management, and evaluation so they can take advantage of those tools in performing their jobs.
...al Development in Small Police Departments. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 13(3), 243-254. doi:10.1350/ijps.2011.13.3.228
The optimal mindset of an investigator is to look for possible motives while remain open to all possibilities while focusing on the easiest evidence that can be gathered from the scene (Osterburg 2010). An investigator also has to be willing to keep an open mind and be able to change and adapt to the different evidence that might present itself. An investigator cannot be dead set on something or a certain way they conduct work, they must also be unwilling to change their approach. It is important to avoid tunnel vision while investigating a crime scene. I think that an optimal mindset is where the investigator can make the best of their job and help them process all the evidence possible, it might help them come to a conclusion of what happened. I also feel that the state of mind that is required to be a successful investigator can be taught through training and experience.
Individual accountability is indeed important to develop a strong foundation in any agency. Michael Phibbs, Sergeant on the Richmond, Virginia Police Department, published an article on the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin titled Analyzing Organizational Performance. Sergeant Phibbs gives an insight of the effectiveness of police accountability and how holding ones accountable for their actions betters the agency. Phibbs also stated, “Employees’ level of engagement forms the foundation for this success. Collectively, personnel make the difference in life-and-death situations by expending energy and effort to protect citizens’ safety every day” (Phibbs, 2011). By providing police officers with early intervention systems, the NYPD will better the officer’s performance. As Phibbs mentions, “personnel make the difference in life-and-death situations by expending energy and effort to protect citizens’ safety every day”. The main duty of police force is to protect the community they serve, and by utilizing early intervention systems, aside issues interrupting the officer’s performance can be prevented. Early intervention systems and individual accountability go hand by hand. By evaluation an officer’s performance, the officer is in pressure of taking into account his everyday actions. An early intervention system helps on the evaluation of the officer’s performance, which will also hold him/her accountable for their
Crime Scene Investigation For my assignment, I will be looking into the case of James Bulger, aged 2 years old, who was kidnapped and murdered by John Venables and Robert Thompson on February 12th 1993. Through evidence found at the crime scene and testimonial statements, the police saw that the two boys, ages 11, abducted James from Bootle Strand Shopping Center, Liverpool. They took him on a long, aimless walk where they brutally attacked him and left him for dead. In my assignment I will show how work done by the police, forensic scientists and Investigators helped to convict Jon and Robert.
Kania & Davis states, “One rarely even decides anything without significant input from coworkers, support staff, and subordinates, especially the planners and budgetary analysts on a work team” (Kania & Davis, 2012, p. 8). In any work capacity, team work will always be mentally and physically beneficial to the officer, squad and department. Police departments in the United States are para military command structures, by which the efforts of an officer affects each and every member of the department. Team work often builds stronger relationship between supervisors and officers. Team building not only accomplishes tasks and goals more efficiently, but it also builds rapport, comradely, and provides superior service to the community.
Criminal investigators are professionals in the law enforcement team who try to solve crimes, prevent the occurrence of future crimes, and searching and detaining suspects. The two categories of criminal investigators are private and public criminal investigators. The level of training that these professionals go through is different which leads us to the differences between public and private criminal investigations.
To start the report off a meeting with the lead detective of the case as well
The criminal investigation process is able to achieve justice to a great to a great extent. They are effective in achieving justice, as they are able to balance the rights of the victim, offenders and society and also provide fair and just outcomes. For these reasons, the criminal investigation process is largely able to achieve justice.
On follow up, investigators will determine what an officer has done in the case based on the information that has been presented in the report. These investigators will then have to decide what they will need to do next in order to continue the investigation and successfully bring it to a close. When it comes to court it will be up to the prosecutor to understand the full scope of the event simply by reading the police reports. They will then have to determine whether all of the elements of the crime have been presented in order to sustain the proper charge and ultimately prove the case. In addition to the prosecutor, Judges, other attorneys and juries will have to rely on information recorded in police reports to make a decisions about the guilt or innocence of the parties involved in the reported event. If the report is inaccurate, misleading or untruthful there could be damaging repercussions. An officer's integrity and credibility could be at