14 POLICE APRIL 2013

Most of the calls a patrol officer handles involve dealing with the aspects of an initial investigation. If an arrest

is required but can’t be made during the course of the of-ficer's shift, the follow-up is usually done by detectives. De-tectives depend on the quality of the work done during the initial response. Since the end depends on the beginning, one of the ways to increase the quality of the incident report is to have an understanding of what detectives do for a living and learn what they need in order to see the case through to its rightful conclusion.

Detective WorkOver the course of my career, I have encountered two schools of thought with regard to detective work. One school of thought suggests every patrol officer needs to become a de-tective at some point in order to become a well-rounded of-ficer. In some agencies this is taken one step further by estab-lishing a formal or informal rule that one can’t get promoted without having some detective time under his or her belt.

I disagree with this premise and conform to the other school of thought: You don’t need to become a detective to be a well-rounded officer; you just need to know what de-tectives do and what they need from your initial investiga-tion. This article will speak to the latter by sharing some tips

obtained from four trusted supervisors whose individual experiences range from 10 to 25 years of practical field work.

Passing the BatonSince people tend to learn by way of analogy, a good way to establish the relationship between patrol officers and detec-tives is to compare them to a team running in a relay race. You can consider the investigation as the race, with patrol officers and detectives being members of the relay team. The first leg is run by patrol officers. Once their leg is done, they pass the baton over to detectives who run the second leg. You could even say that the third and final leg consists of the prosecuting attorney and the subsequent trial. All three have to work together in order to finish first. Here is what detectives want patrol officers to know before they pass the baton, in no particular order.

H Don’t just take a report and leave. If you have time to fol-low up on active leads, follow up on them. It’s your case until you pass it on; do as much with it as possible before you do.

H Know what types of crime are happening around you. Read crime bulletins, know what was reported in your zone, and look for crime trends in your area.

H Treat every contact as a small investigation. During a traf-fic stop, look beyond the ticket. If there are a lot of home bur-glaries in your area, look for evidence of the types of items that have been taken when searching vehicles.

H On a missing person case, please search the house. It seems simple, yet plenty of times the house isn’t checked. Check the house not only for the person, but for notes, com-puters, luggage, or any other possible indicators.

H Patrol officers sometimes don’t know how to retrieve cer-tain information out of their databases. If you can’t make your database sing, request help from someone who can show you. Being able to pull necessary data saves everyone time and effort.

20 things Detectives Want You to knoWCreate better reports and case results by heeding veterans' advice for patrol.

Best PracticesaMaurY MurgaDo

For more Best Practices go towww.PoliceMag.com/bestpractices

www.policemag.com/freeinfo/14503

Learn to manipulate your database to find pertinent information.

Ph

oto

s: A

MA

UR

Y M

UR

GA

Do

tigating most of the cases you are taking reports on. You only work your cases, but they see everyone's.

H Look at a copy of a complete case pack-et. This will show you what kind of work goes on beyond the initial report you sub-mit as an officer. Seeing the complete case packet will give you a chance to see a com-plete investigation from start to finish.

H Feel free to communicate openly with detectives. Detectives are no different than patrol officers; they are just more ex-perienced in a certain area. Patrol officers should be encouraged to call, e-mail, or stop in and speak with detectives any time.

H Be detailed in reports. Officers are seldom taught what information is im-portant to detectives. The journalistic approach is a great start. Try to answer who, what, when, where, why, and how. What seems insignificant now might be the piece that breaks the case wide open later.

H Check local involvements in your da-tabase. Time permitting, look at the re-ports your suspects or persons of interest have been involved in. There is a world of information that can be learned from these, including behaviors and patterns of the individual suspect.

H When investigating a property crime, get information about traceable items. Don’t just focus on serial numbers. For example, iPads, cell phones, and certain types of computers have the ability to be tracked by GPS-type locator programs. Once you get the password(s) from the

16 POLICE APRIL 2013

H The biggest flaw. Patrol officers and de-tectives are trying to do the same job, but often no one is communicating. Some of the challenges we face as law enforcement professionals involve our egos. The walls between patrol officers and detectives must come down before any progress is ever made.

H Get correct contact information. Ob-tain a subject's current address as well as cell, home, and work numbers. Obtaining e-mail addresses or other means of con-tacting someone via Internet-based com-munication is especially important if in a tourist-driven community where the per-son you contact may be from out of town.

H Know how to use your records man-agement or reporting system. Data entry is critical. If you put crap in, you get crap out. One of the most impor-tant pieces of data is the crime window (time frames). Try to narrow down this window from your witnesses and vic-tims because it can be used later in de-veloping tactical surveillance plans.

H Drugs and crimes are related. Espe-cially property crimes. Don’t let any administrator tell you differently. If he does, he has never been a real street cop. When you make drug arrests, dig deeper and look for evidence of proper-ty crimes. Electronics with serial num-bers removed (burglaries, thefts), new clothes with tags still on them (retail thefts), and suspicious numbers of gift cards or credit cards (fraud) should be automatic red flags for you.

H Job Shadow a detective. Ask to fol-

Best Practices

low a detective for at least one week. You will learn about his or her perspectives on gathering facts, obtaining statements, and what to look for when processing crime scenes. These things are critical to successfully prosecuting a case.

H On video evidence, check adjacent busi-nesses. Even if the target location doesn’t have surveillance video, the adjoining store fronts might. You might get lucky and find your suspect or the suspect vehicle has been recorded coming or going.

H Talk to the detectives working your area. Focus on the property detectives, because they are usually the ones inves-

(Above) Work with detectives to make the arrest on your case. (Below) Communication between patrol and detectives is key.

(Left) Job shadowing a detective will help with your interviewing techniques. (Right) Make sure the detective taking over your case knows any special details about the evidence you've collected.

PoliceMag.com 17www.policemag.com/freeinfo/14519

they were also doing home burglaries in the area of the store right after the retail thefts.

H On evidence in general. Make sure you look for any type evidence and then dou-ble-check to make sure you didn’t over-look any. For example, many cases have been solved because the suspect dropped something or threw something away and an observant officer found it.

Don't create More WorkThe relationship between patrol officers and detectives is ours to make or break.

tiPs froM Detectives1. Where a patrol officer’s job ends, a detective’s begins. 2. Learn all you can about manipulat-ing data in your database.3. Make sure you get as much informa-tion as possible for your reports.4. Try a job shadow so you can learn what detectives do and how that can help you.5. The key to working with detectives is communication.

victim, place these apps in your in-car computer. You might be surprised just how quickly you can locate a suspect by using the stolen property against him or her.

H If you think someone is lying, lock him or her into an initial written statement. Many times there is a delay in the detec-tive getting the initial report. During this delay, the individual has time to think of alibis and confer with friends. Locking them into a statement gives the detective a baseline to confirm whether the indi-vidual is lying in subsequent interviews.

H Retail theft is highly organized. Don’t think you're just arresting another kid stealing a candy bar. Retail thieves are of-ten committing other crimes in your area, so think outside the box when investigat-ing or arresting these individuals. For ex-ample, our office recently arrested a group of subjects who were routinely stealing baby diapers from a major retailer. Dur-ing our surveillance of them we learned

The more patrol officers know about what is required in an investigation, the less drama will be created after they turn in their initial reports. The need for a task-ing sheet for more information is usually a sign that someone failed to do something he or she should have.

As a platoon commander, I always tried to teach my squads that once we did our jobs, any detective should be able to take our work product and move forward. If she had to retrace your steps and do something you forgot, then you failed. After all, where a patrol officer’s job ends, a detective’s begins. Let’s make sure that when we pass the baton, we do it right.

Amaury Murgado is a special operations lieutenant with the Osceola County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office. He is a retired master ser-geant from the Army Reserve, has more than 25 years of law enforcement experi-ence, and has been a lifelong student of martial arts.