Follow Up Investigation

Follow-up Investigation – The follow-up investigation should be an extension of the activities of the preliminary investigation and not a repetition of it. The purpose of a follow-up investigation in a criminal case is to gather additional evidence and information to prove the elements of the particular crime in order to affect an arrest and support prosecution of the suspects and/or to recover stolen property.

Guidelines for Conducting Follow-up Investigations: The following list of procedures should be used as a guide when conducting complicated investigations. Principal investigators shall conduct as thorough an investigation as possible, including as many of the following steps as appropriate, although all of the steps may not be necessary in every investigation:

1. Plan, organize, and conduct crime scene searches for the purposes of gathering additional physical evidence;
2. Review and analyze all previous reports prepared in the preliminary phase;
3. Conduct additional interviews with victims, witnesses, reporting parties, and preliminary investigating officers, if necessary;
4. Conduct interviews and/or interrogations of all suspects;
5. Review departmental records for incidents of a similar nature for the purpose of developing a suspect;
6. Review results for laboratory examinations;
7. Seek additional information from informants or from officers from this and neighboring police agencies;
8. Check criminal records of potential suspects;
9. Identify and apprehend suspects;
10. Interview apprehended suspects in order to determine involvement in, and clearance of, other crimes;
11. Arrange for the dissemination of pertinent information obtained to all shifts and units as well as other law enforcement agencies;
12. Assist the Assistant District Attorneys in preparing cases for court presentation;
13. Assist in the prosecution of cases in District and Superior Court;
14. Document in a timely manner, in the Department’s computer system, all relevant investigative measures that have been completed.