Introduction
The criminal law has precise rules of the legal course of action which vary from one country to another – these laws are made to enable the police and prosecutors to take into custody and send down as many people as possible while at the same time drawing outlines of the legal protection of the convicted. In order to achieve this task, the police have designed very distinctive encounters with the citizens to weed out the lawbreakers or those who may assist in their identification. The following encounters have been described.
Consensual Interviews
A consensual interview occurs when a police officer solicits voluntary collaboration with citizens through asking no-coercive or non-intrusive questions. These encounters rarely end up in seizures. Consensual interviews are different from detentions in that, they require no profound suspicion that a suspect in question is about to involve in committing a serious offense or has done it. A consensual interview can escalate into an investigatory stop or continue approaching some suspect in tea accordance with their mode of conduct
Investigatory Stops
The investigation involves the work of inquiring into something thoroughly and systematically to come up with conclusive results about cause and reason. Investigatory stops are arrests that implicate lawful protections.
Arrests
Arrests and Investigatory stops are acceptable by rational and practical distrust of criminal involvements as compared to lawful arrests which usually require probable reason and cause. Investigatory stops are less intrusive as compared to arrests and at times is legally demanded that reason, it be supported through an appreciable level of intention justification and assigned logical suspicion. Detention is not just affected by confronting someone wherever they are.
Even when there isn’t any particular wariness, a police officer can approach someone and interrogate them– provided they do not tempt cooperation by coercive means. This does not imply that a person is obliged to answer the questions; because still, he can, without reasonable suspicion, go his way. In ascertaining whether an encounter was consensual or detention, the meticulous focus is paid to the threatening and coercive conduct of the officers.
Situations that prompt seizure might include: the presence of multiple officers, an officer’s display of weaponry, some physical touching of the suspect, rather the employment of language and voice signaling cooperation with the officer might be duty-bound. If it is detention, the probable and appropriate cause is always required. Police detentions may become custodial and will entail credible reason when the confinement becomes coercive to the degree that it functions as a seizure.
The aspect used to settle on whether the detention results in arrest include: whether the suspect was ferried without his wish, the basis and length the detention; its location; how far; whether there were the application of control were; whether the police official intended to or actually used force and finally the investigative methods which were put in place to confirm or dispel suspicions.
The influence of Police Work on the success of investigatory methods
The methods used by police officers to do an investigation of criminal acts include; Investigation – the work of inquiring into something thoroughly and systematically to draw conclusive results of cause and reason (Broeders, 2000). They use investigatory questions to get accurate information from the suspects. In some cases, it involves inhuman activities, for example, the pinning of the suspect’s fingers or generally inflicting pain onto them. Some officers even shoot at suspected thugs in the quest for critical information especially while dealing with chain thugs or burglars.
Detecting involves a process where a sleuth carries out a police investigation to determine the perpetrator. Detectives hardly use force and carry their trade so wit-fully without the suspect realizing they are being tracked down. On most occasions, the detectives use plain clothes, to disguise the innocent public some even odd hours at drinking places where criminal activities are planned and easily get the criminals to their cuffs. Forensics: the sum of all scientific tests or techniques used in the investigation of crimes. Forensics incorporate scientific procedures like fingerprint examination, examination of DNA samples in criminal sites.
In addition, it also encompasses the use of remote sensing techniques to locate gang networks. Surveillance – the keen observation of a person or group of individuals by the police, for instance, those who have had past criminal records or others under suspicion of the public. Round-up: once the suspected gang or individual has bees spotted or located, the police officers cautiously handles and rounds them up for their final destination- remand and subsequent trial after which guilty ones are left to the arm of the law and innocent ones released the systematic gathering up of suspects by the police officers.
The investigatory methods are usually limited when it comes to their coverage and efficiency especially on the role the law plays in society. Some methods are very much effective while some only induce in the convict, a sense of apathy and will thereafter not discern the importance of morality- the primary role of the law. The inhuman methods used in the ‘extraction of truth’ from the offenders are not only queer but also go against fundamental human rights. The innocent ones suffer what they do not deserve, while those found guilty do not usually conform to the societal norms but rather live the rest of their lives as drug addicts and lead a malformed life and this makes this method very inappropriate.
Other methods like the use of surveillance and detecting or sleuthing are very effective but deny one his right to privacy since this method is able to be deployed without the conscience of the observed or the person being investigated (Horvath, 1978). The detective will get to a suspect’s innermost details concerning the way of life, and such minor details sot that one would feel insecure in life. Forensics as a method has aided the investigations and helped solve very convoluted cases which otherwise would be hard to solve. However, the question is, how much can we trust technology with these critical moral issues.
Forensics has been widely used in many government departments to provide unfathomable evidence in the cases involving the need for accurate analysis say of the DNA to ascertain the biological parenthood, to screen blood samples recovered in murder scenes so as to tell the perpetrators (Schollum,2005). Fingerprint scanning has also been used to identify the real culprits behind some of the gravest crimes ever committed. With the ever-growing technology, tracking criminals will be easier, reliable, time-saving, and more accurate. In summary, the approach used to grade the effectiveness of the investigative questions and techniques is the dual way; can be looked at from the public point of view and also that of the forensics.
References
Broeders, A.P.A (2000) Forensic Speech and acoustic psychotherapy: the State of the sculpture in 2000 ad”, in ortega garcía, j. (ed.) seaf 2000.
Horvath, F. (1978) investigation of the comparative power and assessment of the polygraph method and three other techniques in the identification of criminal.
Mary Schollum, (2005) Investigative interviewing: the literature Published by Police National Headquarters. Web.
OSI, O.I. (1975) “The predicament of Speaker innovation and exclusion“, in SINGH, S. (Ed.) dimension measures in Speech and verbal communication. Baltimore. pp. 399-430.