Question
You are hired as a consultant in City X and are charged with the responsibility of creating a plan to deal with the multiple daytime robbery attacks in your area. Police officers have been able to obtain limited information for each robbery. Your first order of business is to create a draft of a strategic operational/investigative plan to address the crimes. Your plan should be between 5–7 pages (excluding title and reference pages.)This will help too:http://extmedia.kaplan.edu/crimJust/CJ499_1203C/CJ499_Unit7_Assignment.pdf
Investigative Plan
Introduction
It is the duty of all citizens to live in a healthy environment both physically, mentally and spiritually. As a result, the police force and other law agencies have a responsibility of ensuring that the security of all people in an area of jurisdiction is put into consideration and that the freedom of one citizen does not endanger the life of the other citizens. On the other hand, the government and other governmental agencies have a responsibility of ensuring that they make strict and necessary laws that help to maintain law and order among the citizens. Laws of a country comprises of systems of rules that are enforced through the social institution to govern the behavior and activities of individuals in a certain area of jurisdiction. It is worth noting that there should be no single individual who should be favored by the laws made in the country to ensure that rule of law is observed as well as equality and fairness (Tudor-Owen, 2016). This assignment will mainly focus on developing and creating a plan to help in curbing the increased cases of daytime robbery attacks in city X.
Background Information
Considering that creating and developing a strategic plan on how to curb these crimes, there is the need for conducting a background study to determine the cause of the multiple daytime robberies in the town. When analyzing the patterns and trends used by these criminals, I as the newly appointed consultant, I need to use either of the following techniques to identify the source as well as determining the best alternative to implementing to stop these crimes.
- Reviewing police reports from all jurisdiction
- Re-interview any witnesses found in the police reports
- Review all forensic evidence from the cases found within the police reports
- Review any camera footage captured at the scenes
- Review the tactical analysis of the police agencies within the city’s multiple jurisdictions for trends and similarities they have already found.
- Seek assistance and further information from the nearby agencies in the neighboring towns to determine whether they are facing the same problem as well as asking for human resources if the need arises.
Besides, there is the need to develop a list of all the things that individuals working with me are supposed to perform and do to make sure that there is no conflict of resources as well as focusing resources on the most urgent areas. A predetermined plan ensures that all the members of the team clearly understand their roles and duties as well as boundaries in the team.
Investigative Plan
Even before my team could settle town to commence an investigation, we were notified of the robbery of three supermarkets within the city. From the investigations, it was easy to connect these recent robberies to the earlier incidences given the fact that there was a similar trail of evidence that was present in other incidences. On further review of the police reports, we were able to determine that there have been twelve other robberies with similar evidence and conducted in a similar mode and technique. This further showed the strongest correlation connecting all the cases considering that they were all conducted in a similar manner. Police report further indicated that there was a group of three notorious robbers who were suspected of conducting the crimes (Holmes, 2008). In conjunction with the police force, we agreed to conduct new investigations, review of the existing evidence as well as interviewing possible witnesses to apprehend the suspects. All the necessary elements for the crime, robbery have been met according to the law of the country to ensure that all the activities conducted are by the book and can also be documented to be used for further review or as a piece of evidence. Below are the activities and responsibilities of my team in the attempt to bring the suspect to justice as well as creating and developing a permanent plan that will help to reduce crimes in the city.
- The team has a duty of compiling and reviewing robbery reports for the previous four months considering that the rampant increase in daytime crime began two months ago. Such reports would be very useful in determining exactly when the first daytime robbery was a report and the possibility response from the police.
- The team must also work hand in hand with all other law agencies as well as neighboring agencies to determine the possible of the same attacks in their areas of jurisdiction. Moreover, this coordination would also determine whether the suspects commit crimes in one city and run away to take refuge in other cities. In addition, information sharing between agencies makes it easy to track the movements and actions of the suspects.
- The team has the power, authority, and duty to determine key witnesses who are assumed and thought to have important information that can cause be crucial in apprehending the suspects. Thus, such suspects need to be re-interviewed to obtain a new set of evidence.
- Review and re-examine important pieces of evidence such as camera footage from the victim businesses considering that this may lead investigators to create, unravel and develop suspects and patterns of behavior that can be key to the investigation.
- After conducting a new investigation and getting new information regarding all the cases, the team has a duty to provide reports to the intelligence officers for analyzing of patterns, characters, and behavior. The intelligence departments can prove useful in this case considering that it has the latest tracking software and can provide spreadsheets to better coordinate times, places, vehicles used and other information to help in determining if the same suspects are committing all robberies(Maguire, 2012).
- Identify potential suspects by extensively reviewing the modus operandi of all the crimes that have been conducted over time. Such activity and action can b very helpful in identifying and creating a list of suspects that need to be investigated to determine whether they are guilty or innocent and this can eventually lead to the apprehension of the offenders.
Technical Assistances
Given the recent innovations and inventions in technology, it is correct to state that the police force has come a long way regarding the technology that is used to combat crime in the city. In the early days most of the paperwork in a police station was primarily handwritten, but with technology, this culture is changing where things are done with a computer in the current era. However, because there is a budgetary limit to this activity, it becomes difficult to make a great strategic plan that will incorporate all the needed tools. As a result, this activity will attempt to utilize the technology in the police station, but in the case of needed assistance, my team will seek additional technology from the nearby agencies.
- The first technology that my team will be in need of being the Geographical Information Software (GIS) that would be crucial in the creation of a complex mapping data, making it easy to track down all the suspects for questioning and further investigation.
- AFIS and NCIC databases will be very helpful in identifying all the arrests as well as their comparison ad identification of fingerprints to make sure that they get the right people in custody. Moreover, these databases would be helpful in quickly locating matches as well as suspects recently arrested and released from the custody(Taylor, 2013).
- Finally, the team will need handheld radios with secure Bluetooth technology for communication between officers on the ground and the command unit. Digital photography and video cameras will also be utilized to servile the city as well as trace any vehicle raising suspicion in the city.
Analysis of the Robbery Activity
My team has a duty to scan, analyze, respond and assess all the patterns and behavior portrayed by the suspects. The first step will mainly focus on identifying the problem, in this case, is the daytime robbery in the city; analyze the source of the raw data to be used in the investigation. As a result, the crime reports and statements from the previous crimes will be analyzed to identify the times the crimes were committed, the number of people involved in each case and the response of the supermarket owners.
Synthesizing the Data
This part of the investigation focuses on prioritizing needs and requirements by taking out the data that are not needed for the team to focus on the particulars of the crimes that the team is interested in. The data obtained in the investigation will then be analyzed through the use of statistical methods according to variables available to the team (Barkan, 2009). Besides, the data will also be used to produce user-friendly graphs to show the average times of the crimes, sex, ethnicity, and ages of those suspected to commit the offenses.
Investigative Units Needed
For the team to work effectively and efficiently there is the need to divide them into units based on their area of expertise. These units are comprised of individual crime analysis units of the jurisdiction, the investigative units of each jurisdiction, regular cops as well as the forensic team. Moreover, there is the need to increase the patrol unit to ensure the suspects do not g away with their offenses.
Procuring Equipment
Considering that most of the equipment and tools needed to conduct this investigation are within the police force, there will be no extra funds needed to fund the investigation. Most of the tools within the police force will be re-purposed, and other equipment will be donated by the local business owners who are the victims or likely victims of the crimes.
Conclusion
Looking at the crimes in the city from a law enforcement perspective, crime analysis units provide the most effective information. A copy of this plan will be provided to the mayor of the city as well as city council members for approval at an open forum (Holmes, 2008). The recommendation of this study is to hire more patrol personnel to ensure a high police presence in the areas affected by this population increase.
References
Barkan, S. E. (2009). Criminology: A sociological understanding. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Holmes, R. M. (2008). Profiling violent crimes: An investigative tool. Sage publications.
Maguire, M. M. (2012). The Oxford handbook of criminology. Oxford University Press.
Taylor, I. W. (2013). Critical Criminology (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.
Tudor-Owen, J. (2016). Written plans and self-evaluations in investigative interviews with witnesses
