Specialised Team Investigations PDF

Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management CHAPTER 11 Specialised team investigations Chapter 11 Topic 4 1  Faculty of Huma...

Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management CHAPTER 11 Specialised team investigations Chapter 11 Topic 4 1  Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management SPECIALISED TEAM INVESTIGATIONS The urbanization of communities and the evolution of fields of specialized policing have created new opportunities for officers. It was once the case that a police officer was expected to be a generalist capable of working across a wide range of policing fields. However, the level of expertise now expected in many fields is such that specialized investigative teams have become the norm. 2  Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management SPECIALISED TEAM INVESTIGATIONS Specialized investigative duties now include: – Forensic Identification Section – Traffic Analyst and Accident Reconstruction Units – Criminal intelligence and Crime Analysis – Criminal and Geographic Crime Profiling – Polygraph section and specialized interview teams – Computer Crime Analysts and Data Recovery – Organized Crime Sections – Gang Crime Unit – Integrated Homicide Investigation Teams – Dedicated Surveillance Units – Community Policing Teams 3  Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management SPECIALISED TEAM INVESTIGATIONS For a new investigator, each of these specialities offers an area and a direction where they may decide to direct their career. It is not uncommon for a police officer to move through several specialized sections over the course of their policing career. What each of these specialized teams does have in common is that investigators on these teams have all achieved the level of basic investigative task skills and thinking skills required to make them a valuable asset to their team and their organization. As new investigators continue to develop their investigative knowledge applying the task skills and thinking skills. 4  Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management SPECIALISED TEAM INVESTIGATIONS It is important to remember that practice and experience are critical components of the ongoing investigative learning. Many police organizations have carefully developed field training programs where new recruits are challenged to engage and demonstrate investigative skills within a set schedule of tasks to complete the compulsory training. Once this set schedule is completed, it is then incumbent upon the new investigator to become a more self-directed learner. In most policing organizations the path to ongoing investigative duties and the associated experience and skills development that come with those duties, is only available to those who actively seek that experience. 5  Faculty of Humanities Department of Safety and Security Management SPECIALISED TEAM INVESTIGATIONS The secret to continued development as an investigator is a simple one; “become a self-directed learner and seek out investigative experience and learning at any and all levels available”. These work experiences may seem mundane and tedious at times, but every witness interviewed, every search completed, each piece of evidence properly collected and marked, every report written, and every experience testifying in court, is part of the ongoing experience and learning. 6