Specialized Roles of Police

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Police may be required to perform specialized functions.
Large Departments may have specialized officers to deal with specific problems
Suppressible Crimes: Crimes that commonly occur in locations and under circumstances that give police officers a reasonable opportunity to deter or apprehend offenders

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Specialized operations are often used to saturate particular areas or to stake out suspects and possible crime locations.
CSI effect
Forensic Science deals with examining physical evidence to answer legal questions. Forensic experts can be found in a wide array of occupations, including forensic accounts, anthropologists, artists, chemists, dentists, geologists, pathologists, psycholinguists, psychologists and toxicologists

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Criminalistics is a branch of forensic science that deals with physical evidence related to a crime.
This may include fingerprints, firearms, tool marks, blood, hairs, documents and other types of physical evidence.
The primary characteristic of an effective investigator is objectivity.
The investigator seeks the truth, not simply proof of the suspects guilt.

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Preliminary Investigation consists of action performed immediately upon receiving a call to respond to the scene of a crime scene of a crime and is usually conducted by patrol officers
Follow-up Investigation: may be conducted by the investigative services division, sometimes also known as the detective bureau. Successful investigation relies on cooperative, coordinated efforts of both the patrol and the investigative function

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Investigative Responsibilities:
Securing the crime scene
Recording all facts related the case
Photographing, measuring and sketching the crime scene
Obtaining and identifying evidence
Protecting and storing evidence
Interviewing witnesses and interrogating suspects
Assisting in identifying suspects

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Any area that contains evidence of criminal activity is considered a crime scene and must be secured to eliminate contamination.
Contamination means to introduce something foreign into the scene, moving items at the scene or removing evidence from it.
Investigators record all necessary information by photographing, sketching, taking notes to be used later in a written report

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The investigator must obtain answers to questions: who? What? When? Where?
How? And Why?
Investigators do NOT DETERMINE GUILT!
Both photographs and sketches are usually needed in an investigation. The photographs include all details and can show items close up. Sketches can be selective and can show much larger areas.

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Some agencies have established evidence technicians.
The type of evidence collected is directly related to the type of crime committed.
Scenes of violent crimes frequently contain such evidence as blood, hair, fibers, fingerprints, footprints and weapons.

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DNA: the basic building block comprising each person’s genetic code. DNA is found in virtually every cell in a person’s body, including blood, semen, hair and skin cells, and it provides a blueprint for the various characteristics that make each person unique.
DNA Profiling uses the material from which chromosomes are made to positively identify individuals. No two individuals, except identical twins, have the same DNA structure.

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CODIS: The FBI’s Combined DNA Index System is an electronic national database and searching mechanism containing hundreds of thousands of
DNA profiles obtained from evidence samples from unsolved crimes and from know offenders.
Firearms as evidence may be traced to its owner through the serial number. The make of the weapon is usually determined by the rifling, spiral grooves cut into a gun’s barrel during it manufacture.

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Ballistics deals with the “internal (within the weapon), external (after the projectile leaves the muzzle and before impact), terminal (after the bullet impacts and comes to rest) and forensic
(examining comparisons of projectiles/cases and their relationship to firearms)
Interviewing and Interrogating:
A large part of any investigation is talking with people to obtain information.

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Investigators interview those with information about a crime.
A witness is a person other than the suspect who has helpful information about a specific incident or suspect. A witness may be a complainant (the person reporting the offense), an accuser, a victim, an observer of the incident, an eyewitness, an expert or a scientific examiner of physical evidence.

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Officers may also use informants, an individual who did not witness the offense but knows something about who committed it. While informants may receive money as a reward, most informants cooperate with law enforcement to receive a reduced sentence for pending criminal matter.

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While investigators talk to suspects, they technically interrogate suspects, although the questioning may be called an interview. Many departments videotape interviews and interrogations to protect against liability.
Three basic types of identification are:
Field identification
Photographic identification
Lineup identification

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Field identification: is at the scene identification, made within a short time after a crime has been committed.
Field identification is based on a totality of circumstances, taking into consideration the witness’s concentration on the suspect when the crime was committed, the accuracy of the description, the certainty at the time of the confrontation and the length of time between crime commission and the field identifcation.

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Another way to identify a suspect may be the
Modus Operandi or M.O.
Profilers:
Relatively superficial characteristics to identify suspects, such as height, weight, race, gender, age, accent, type of car drive, M.O. and so on.
Intelligence Officers:
Most large departments have an intelligence division whose top officer reports directly to the chief and whose activities are keep from the rest of the department.

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Intelligence units work in two areas:
Undercover or internal affairs
Undercover work involves ongoing investigations into such criminal activities as illegal sale of guns, payoffs to politicians, major drug cases and organized crime.
Undercover officers do not wear uniforms or drive marked cars. They may assume names and fictitious identities.

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Light Cover and Deep Cover
Light cover officers usually have fake id’s but go home to their families and real like, most likely in another city.
Deep Cover live their roles 24/7, with a false ID and a false personal history.
Internal Affairs:
Policing the Police

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Respond to citizens complaints and misconduct by police.
Juvenile Officers: A special kind of
“juvenile officer” is the School Resource
Officer. These programs offer an opportunity for school officials to proactively protect their school and improve their education

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SWAT Team officers are immediately available, flexible, mobile officers used to deploy against critical incidents. They seek to contain and neutralize dangerous situations.
SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) began in 1967 when the Los Angeles
Police Department organized such a unit to respond to critical incidents.

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K-9 Assisted Officers:
The first organized K-9 unit in the US began in 1907 in New York City.
K-9’s are used to detect concealed suspects, drugs, weapons and explosives, fund evidence discarded by fleeing suspects; control crowds and break up fights, recover lost articles; and locate distressed person and dead bodies.

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K-9’s may be specifically trained in search, attack and capture, drug detection, bomb detection and crime deterrence.
Various breeds of dogs are used, but the most popular is the German Shepherd.
K-9 Case Law:
Most issues revolve around the 4 th amendment-unreasonable search and seizure.

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In US v. Place (1993) the US Supreme Court ruled that the exposure of luggage to a canine sniff did not constitute a search.
The courts have usually sided with law enforcement on the use-of-force issue.
Devanney and Devanney (2003) report: “Several courts have already held that properly trained police dogs does not constitute deadly force.”
Dogs are often considered reasonable force, not deadly force.
WWW.k9fleck.org

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Reserve Officers: Some Departments have reserve units to help achieve departmental goals.
Can be called auxiliary police.
Beside performing traditional street patrol, reserves may be found on bicycles, in the water and in the air.