Formal Preliminary Investigation

Preliminary Investigations are defined by many as an inquiry conducted by law enforcement officials to gather more information about an allegation. It is in other words a process that takes place immediately after a crime has been committed, in which police or investigators determine whether there is sufficient evidence or cause to charge the defendant or suspect. Despite a thorough preliminary investigation being made, most investigations do not necessarily yield enough information to prosecute a criminal case. In fact, many cases require a follow up investigation to either gather more information, or look back at details that can be considered questionable. In the same way, a properly conducted preliminary investigation maybe sufficient to

“After this, the officer shall obtain all the information of the witness’s, if they exist, and extract any information they might have. In this step, the statements are the most important as they contain the information about what they witnessed” (criminal investigation). Finally in the last step, the officer is required to compile a report with the information given by the witnesses and the information he himself witnessed at the crime scene. All of this information is used in the formal post-crime scene investigation. If a case were to not have a good outcome, which happens very often, officers can resort to a follow up investigation. A properly conducted follow-up investigation may be sufficient to bring a case to a satisfactory conclusion but it is not a quick process. For the follow up investigation, another series of steps exist. The first includes reviewing and analyzing all previous reports prepared in the preliminary phase. “When conducting follow-up investigations the member conducting the investigation has to thoroughly review the initial incident report documenting the incident under investigation, as well as any supplemental reports that have been written, and any statements taken during the initial investigation” (criminal investigation). After this, the law enforcement officials are to conduct additional interviews and interrogations. Upon completion of the initial case review, members conducting follow-up investigations should make an initial determination of any additional witness, or potential witness that may need to be interviewed regarding the incident under investigation. In addition, if a suspect, or potential suspect has been identified, then an interrogation of the suspect may be appropriate. Any interrogations will be conducted in compliance with the agencies policy and with