THE SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATOR The modern successful investigator must be skilled in obtaining information from both physical evidence and the testimony of those concerned with a crime. He must know just what evidence lends itself to scientific evaluation in the laboratory by skilled technicians, as well as how to preserve and transport such evidence. And he must also be skilled in the interviewing of victims and witnesses of crime, and the interrogation of suspects. Lastly, he must know what evidence is necessary to prove the essential elements of the crime charged. Criminal investigation has three initial phases that the successful investigator must always bear in mind. First, has a crime been committed? Second, if so, what crime? Third, who committed such crime? When it is determined what crime has been committed, all efforts are directed toward recording the facts of the crime, identification of the perpetrator and his apprehension and arrest, as well as the collection and preservation of sufficient evidence for conviction. The investigator must procure testimony and physical evidence that will be admissible evidence that will withstand the attacks of the defendant’s counsel and that will be understood by a jury. Successful criminal investigative techniques are usually gained through experience, but can be gained through reading. A study of the basic facts plus experience in applying these facts is the ideal combination. However well the techniques may be learned, it is their application to specific cases that enables the investigator to thoroughly understand their use. All investigations, to be successful, must have the cooperation of many people. The complainant, the victim and the witnesses must give the investigator their cooperation. Unfortunately, in many instances, such persons are unwilling to co-operate. An investigator is classed as a policeman. Many people do not wish to co-operate with police officers. Perhaps for personal reasons, they fear or dislike police. In only a few instances will voluntary co-operation be encountered. Usually some persuasion on the part of the investigator is necessary. Such persuasion is possible when the investigator has the personal characteristics for making and keeping friends. If he has emotional self-control, tactfulness, personal dignity, integrity, courtesy, honesty, and conscientiousness, then he will make friends who will give him their cooperation. The investigator should never handicap himself by trying to force information from the persons involved in a criminal investigation. He should instead persuade them- the victim, from whom must be secured the basic facts of the crime; the witnesses, from whom must be secured any additional pertinent facts; the suspects from whom must be secured information as to their possible guilt; and the criminal himself, from whom must be secured damaging admissions or possibly a full confession and the reenactment of crime. Most detectives do not spend enough time on the victim. Be courteous, let him talk, he’s just been the victim of a crime. He’s excited. Let him talk it out. A god investigator listens, and only when the victim is about talked out does he ask questions. When all the facts are secured, the victim must be told something of police procedure and that every effort will be made to arrest those responsible. It’s the same technique with witnesses. Let them talk, question them, and then thank them. They also will leave with friendly feelings toward their questioner. And surprisingly, suspects should be given the same courtesy. Not all of them are the criminals sought, and harsh treatment ruins their co-operation as possible witnesses in the future. The ability to make friends and secure the co-operation of others is, in my opinion, the most important asset of a detective. The investigator seeks information from all sorts of people, many of whom can become his friends. Such friends can be made daily, during investigations, while on patrol, or in ordinary social contacts. Taxi drives, waitresses, bartenders, bankers- all may be sources of useful information. The modern detective does not have “stools”, but he must have friends. Many times experienced newsmen will say that it was not scientific techniques that broke an important case. They’ll hint cynically that it was “good information”. What they say is true. Most cases are cleared as the result of useful information and useful information usually comes from friends. Of course, successful investigations are not usually completed without a great deal of hard work. Therefore, a good detective is necessarily a hard worker, an industrious man. He is close observer of facts and an analytical examiner of complaints, information, opinions, beliefs and appearances. He cannot be satisfied with hearsay or mere suspicions. The detection and arrest of criminals are not the result of “luck” or “playing hunches”. They are the direct result of hard work- hard work in learning the “know-how” of investigative techniques, hard work in gathering information, and hard work in isolating truth from falsehood and fact from fancy. It is in separating truth from the usual welter of half-truths, misconceptions of fact, and downright truths that the detective performs his hardest work. That is why the successful investigator must be conscientious and a man of integrity. All the facts must be secured. Those that might clear the only suspect in the case are just as important as those that might serve his conviction. No possible excuse has ever existed for suppressing evidence. No. investigator who deserves such appellation would ever be guilty of such a heinous offense. True, a lot of hard work may have to be done over and re-directed toward other suspects when new evidence is uncovered, but the investigation of a crime is not aimed at convicting anyone, other than the person or persons who committed such crime. It is truly a search for truth, and the successful investigator must always strive for just that the true facts in any case. Briefly, the successful investigator must be well grounded in investigative techniques, must have the ability to make friends in order to secure information from them and to get them to co-operate with them. He must know just what evidence must be produced to secure conviction for certain specified crimes. He must know what evidence lends itself to laboratory analysis. He must be resourceful and determined in order to successfully compete with equally resourceful and determined criminals. Lastly, he must be a person of great integrity, a man who realizes that the purpose of an investigation is to separate truth from falsehood and to make known certain facts from a welter of testimony and physical evidence, and a man who will protect the innocent as well as bring the guilty before the bar of justice. Pg:153-154
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 19:28:33 +0000
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