AC1.1 EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ROLES OF PERSONNEL INVOLVED IN
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Link to Brief
POLICE OFFICERS
One type of personnel is police officers. They are the first to arrive at a crime scene
and their role is to preserve life, arrest and to secure the crime scene and any
evidence.
Expertise
They are trained to investigate crime and to try and reduce the fear of it as well as,
attempt to reduce crime itself. An advantage to police officers is their varied areas of
expertise due to the many specialist units such as the Criminal, Investigation
Department (CID). CIDs investigate a range of criminals and call for the assistance of
another department if necessary. Other specialist units include the Drugs squad,
firearms branch, underwater search branch, child protection branch and fraud
prevention team.
Despite their expertise, the police still make many mistakes. For example, the
Hillsborough Tragedy was an example of reckless decision-making by the police
which shows that they can possibly act inappropriately during investigations. The
police officer in charge, gave the order to open the gates before kick-off resulting in
the stadium becoming extremely crowded. People were suffocating and being
trampled on, 94 were killed and 766 were severely injured.
, The police are also often criticised for being institutionally racist. An example of this
is the Stephen Lawrence case. Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager who was
murdered in a racially motivated attack in London. The Macpherson report, 1999,
stated that the initial attempts to catch Lawrence’s killer was not prioritised due to
the institutional racism of the metropolitan police.
Another limitation to police officers is that they do not always follow policy and may
interfere and cross-contaminate evidence, such as in the OJ Simpson case
Availability.
A final advantage to police officers is that they are available 24/7 by dialling 999.
However, the number of police officers fell by 20,600 between March 2010 and
March 2019. 123,200 police officers left the force due to budget cuts.
Cost
An advantage is that the salary for police officers is between £20,000 and £40,000,
this provides an incentive for people to join the profession which means there will be
many officers helping with criminal investigations. However, it is expensive to fund
the police service, as it costs £300 million for 10,000 police officers. This leads to a
decreased availability which is evident in the Hillsborough Case. There were tragic
problems of overcrowding due to the small number of police officers.
SCENE OF CRIME OFFICERS
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Link to Brief
POLICE OFFICERS
One type of personnel is police officers. They are the first to arrive at a crime scene
and their role is to preserve life, arrest and to secure the crime scene and any
evidence.
Expertise
They are trained to investigate crime and to try and reduce the fear of it as well as,
attempt to reduce crime itself. An advantage to police officers is their varied areas of
expertise due to the many specialist units such as the Criminal, Investigation
Department (CID). CIDs investigate a range of criminals and call for the assistance of
another department if necessary. Other specialist units include the Drugs squad,
firearms branch, underwater search branch, child protection branch and fraud
prevention team.
Despite their expertise, the police still make many mistakes. For example, the
Hillsborough Tragedy was an example of reckless decision-making by the police
which shows that they can possibly act inappropriately during investigations. The
police officer in charge, gave the order to open the gates before kick-off resulting in
the stadium becoming extremely crowded. People were suffocating and being
trampled on, 94 were killed and 766 were severely injured.
, The police are also often criticised for being institutionally racist. An example of this
is the Stephen Lawrence case. Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager who was
murdered in a racially motivated attack in London. The Macpherson report, 1999,
stated that the initial attempts to catch Lawrence’s killer was not prioritised due to
the institutional racism of the metropolitan police.
Another limitation to police officers is that they do not always follow policy and may
interfere and cross-contaminate evidence, such as in the OJ Simpson case
Availability.
A final advantage to police officers is that they are available 24/7 by dialling 999.
However, the number of police officers fell by 20,600 between March 2010 and
March 2019. 123,200 police officers left the force due to budget cuts.
Cost
An advantage is that the salary for police officers is between £20,000 and £40,000,
this provides an incentive for people to join the profession which means there will be
many officers helping with criminal investigations. However, it is expensive to fund
the police service, as it costs £300 million for 10,000 police officers. This leads to a
decreased availability which is evident in the Hillsborough Case. There were tragic
problems of overcrowding due to the small number of police officers.
SCENE OF CRIME OFFICERS
