Office 6

Investigation Week One – Gathering Intelligence On the 15th of February at 07.15 the body of Claire Preston, a 23 year old

woman, was discovered in the junction in front of PortoBeach Sea Life Centre. A global investigation was launched following the discovery of a second victim

- Lorna McNamee. Experts from Florida, Glasgow, and Manchester were gathered to investigate

the murders and use their substantial experience to calm public unrest within PortoBeach.

 Florida experts: Kimberly Cloutier, Kevin Mayes.  Glasgow experts: Anthony Nevin, Ross Carvel.  Manchester experts: Gemma Molyneux, Daniel Taylor, Mariam Fawaz, Claire

Ingram, Sophie Carter, Sophie Leatherbarrow, Wasim Akhtar, Jamie Quinn.  Kimberly Cloutier was appointed Senior Investigating Officer. However

following several circumstances, intensified by the pressures of the investigation, Cloutier withdrew from the Investigation.

 Claire Ingram nominated herself as Senior Investigating Officer and was unanimously backed by the experts.       

Key Skills: The expert’s demonstrated an ability to work as a team The experts demonstrated an ability to gather relevant examples of

murders, from media reports, from within their own locality. The experts were also able to use their skills of analysis to critically

examine the media articles. Furthermore, the experts used skills of comparison to link the murders of

their locality with the current investigation

Murder victim’s characteristics:

Five female victims with possible, however inconsistently the final victim was male.The five women were found in public areas; however male victim, again inconsistent, was found in a private residence.All victims were found partially clothed, and suffered from some form of strangulation.The use of extreme violence was evident in all of the victims apart from the final male victim. Expert Dilemma: Final male victim: related or unrelated?

Week 2 - The Investigation TeamSenior Investigating Officer: Claire IngramPublic Information Researcher: Anthony NevinPublic Information Officer: Ross Carvel and

Gemma MolyneuxPublic Information Coordinator: Mariam Fawaz

and Wasim Akhtar Geographic Information Analyst: Daniel TaylorStatistical Analysis: Sophie Carter and Jamie

QuinnEvidence Disclosure Officer: Kevin Mayes and

Sophie Leatherbarrow

Key Findings The statistical analysis of data found: Compared to England, Scotland and Florida PortoBeach had a relatively low

murder rate with only 84 being recorded in a 12 month period, whilst Scotland recorded 97, England and Wales had 651 and Florida recorded 1168 murders in a 12 month period

The murder rates in PortoBeach seemed to be rising in that from the month of April 2008 to September 2008 the murder rate was 31, in comparison to the April 2009 to September 2009 when the murder rate was 41

The table of recorded crime in PortoBeach was completed showing that most murders occurred in Residential dwellings, whilst in Educational, Health and Office buildings no murders were recorded 

In response to the question posed to the team concerning funding and declaring PortoBeach a high crime area it was decided that receiving more money should be our primary concern

We realised that this would cause further social unrest but felt that as that murder count was increasing it was necessary to receive more funding for additional officers in order to bring the case to a close 

Week 3 - Community Links Florida:

1. Name: Homicide Bereavement Group Contact: http://www.sarasotasheriff.org/victims2.asp Description: Helps those who have lost someone from homicide.  2. Name: Florida coalition Against Domestic Violence Contact: http://www.fcadv.org/ Description: Group that provides support for victims of domestic violence.

Glasgow:

1. Name: Routes Out of Prostitution Intervention Team Contact: http://www.womenssupportproject.co.uk/directory/179,1,242/Routes-Out-of-Prostitution-Intervention-Team.html Description: A Glasgow based organisation that offers support, advice and guidance for women looking to leave behind a life of prostitution.

2. Name: SACRO Contact: http://www.sacro.org.uk/ Description: SACRO (Safeguarding Communities – Reducing Offending) is a voluntary organisation which provides services to the community

to help prevent offending.   Manchester:

1. Name: Victim Support Contact: http://www.victimsupport.org.uk Description:  Support for victims and victim’s family

2. Name: NCAP UK Contact: http://www.ncapuk.org/ Description: NCAP UK is a national charity and offers help and guidance to prostitutes wishing to escape the business and provides knowledge

on human trafficking. 

Key FindingsA substantial amount of support available for

victims and families of victims.A variation in different forms of support

throughout communities.A large amount of charitable and voluntary

organisations set up in order to help others.A general link in community groups between

the U.K and the U.S.  

Week 4 - Press ReleaseAs a Police force we discussed different pieces of

information that should be made available to the public, taking into consideration how the public may perceive the information.

Previous press releases that dealt with similar cases were considered.

Working with a draft copy of the press release, enabled different members of the police force to edit and alter what information was decided to be essential in informing the public on what was being done to solve the crimes.

We utilised this opportunity to publicise information gathered in previous assignments, namely the community links and crime statistics.

Key Findings Informed the public of the deceased victims. Confirmed the murders were linked.Ensured the public that all is being done to catch the perpetrator,

reinforced this through the use of CCTV footage and witnesses.Women were warned to stay vigilant, especially at night, as they

were the primary targets.Hotline was made available to the public, making it possible for

those who are concerned or have information regarding the perpetrator.

Public was also presented with community links that are available for those who wish to take part in helping and to family members of the deceased.

Recent vigilante action in the community was also addressed and was regarded as unacceptable.

No profile of the perpetrator was given.

Claire Ingram- Senior Investigating Officer (SIO)

Main Contribution

Writing weekly reports for the chief Reporting feedback to the group Reporting Muster reports to the group Being involved in group discussions Tidying the final pieces before presenting them to the Chief  Challenges faced

I found many challenges doing this project including staying involved every week however doing the weekly report helped me do this, Also keeping track and reporting on individual contribution was difficult but i understood that it was necessary however my biggest challenge is still to come and that is choosing people for special recognition because the team I have worked wih have all been fantastic.

Skills Acquired

Using and editing a Wiki sight which is something I have never done before Working with people without face-to-face contact Team work skills  Report writing and summarising Leadership skills 

Anthony Nevin - Public Information Researcher (PIR) Main Contributions  I feel I helped to contribute to all the tasks presented, but I perhaps contributed most to the

statistics or media release tasks. I also felt I was actively involved in discussions throughout the five week programme.

  Biggest Challenges Faced  In general no task appeared more challenging than another. However, in relation to the press

release, there was an extensive debate over the role vigilantism. I disagreed with others about the best course of action for the vigilantes. This had to carefully negotiated and suitably resolved.

  Acquired Skills

The ability to work as part of a group/team and online communication skills Problem solving skills and the ability to work well under pressure The ability to analyse relevant data and time management The ability to compare relevant data from three different areas Critical and analytic skills Creativity in terms of constructing our own victims

Ross Carvel – Public Information Officer (PIO)I feel my main contribution has been during the week of the

press release, mainly due to my job within the project and also due to medical reasons curtailing my work in the first few weeks.

I have sought to work as a mediator in group discussions and looked to put my views forward quickly to start debates. 

The biggest challenges I faced were working in such a diverse team, in terms of locality and viewpoint.  Furthermore, working under a SIO can be a difficult situation although I feel overall, individually and collectively we used the hierarchy to our advantage - thanks Claire!

I would reiterate the points of those before me in highlighting the difficulty of working with people only through the medium of this forum. 

This has provided an insight into the working environment both with the pressure of deadlines and teamwork.

Gemma Molyneux – Public Information Officer (PIO) Main Contributions  I felt I help contribute each week to each of the required task in specific the community links

and the press release. However I think my main contributions were in week 3 and for when creating community links and the press release

I also helped to edit and amend individual’s works together, structuring and ordering pages and involved myself in some of the discussions.

Biggest Challenges Faced  The biggest challenge for me was my time keeping, in the first couple of week I found that

quite hard as I didn't have a fully understand of what was expected from myself. I believe I made up for this is the following 3 weeks with a better involvement

Another challenge I faced was the involved I had with the group, at the beginning of the investigation this was quite limited however as the weeks went on my involvement grew.

  Acquired Skills 

I believe my main acquired skills were learning to involve myself more within a team and improving my communication skills.  I also gained skills in working as a time and my involvement with of working alongside other people.

I also think the investigation taught me a lot about myself and the skills I already had, in which I was able to put into practise.

Mariam Fawaz - Public Information Coordinator (PIC)

Main Contribution When preparing different police publications, I was unable to write the press

release on my own as the opinions of the other officers mattered. So when taking on the task of preparing the press release, I did not complete this role on my own. As all members of office6 contributed to what information should be included and what should be disregarded. The topic of vigilantes differed upon opinions as some believed it is important to include members of the public in the search for the killer, where as others thought it was not the job of the public to interfere in the work of the police. It was however decided that vigilante action was not acceptable, thus vigilantism will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The final draft of the press release was finalised by the senior investigating officer, before finally being presented to the Police Chief. 

Acquired Skills

The skills I achieved within this work, taught me how to take into consideration the opinions of others through different forms of networks, not just face to face contact, and to make sure all members of a group or team contribute to the task at hand.

Daniel Taylor – Geographic Information Analyst (GIO)

Main Contributions  My main contribution I feel was organising the victim profiles, there was a lot of discussion over

that and I feel I managed to summarise everyone’s discussion throughout that week into interesting victim profiles which were then opened up for further editing and discussion by the group. I feel I contributed to most weeks fairly well, getting my view across and reading over everyone’s discussions so I could participate effectively.

  Biggest Challenges Faced  The biggest challenged I face was scheduling the tasks into my time. The project landed on the

most hectic weeks of the university year for essay deadlines so fitting in weekly tasks was difficult but I feel I managed it. I managed to organise myself ok for all but one week in which my internet let me down and due to being so side tracked, I didn’t notice my posts weren’t appearing.

  Acquired Skills

First and foremost team work. Discussing situations and all contributing to final decisions very much replicated what I can expect in a workplace.

Time management. Usually with essays, I can slap set aside a few days and just do it. However this required weekly contributions and so fitting this in has showed me I can do it.

Discussion. It simply has improved my critical thinking and discussion ability. Problem solving. Dilemmas were far from rare in this project and we had to find ways around

them. As a budding police officer, this will no doubt help me in the future.

Sophie Carter - Statistical Analyst (SA)

The main contribution I feel I have made during the investigation is the statistical work done in week two

I provided statistics from England and Florida and completed a table on murder rates in PortoBeach

I also feel that I have contributed to the profiling of the killer and was actively involved in group discussions on vigilante behaviour and the funding issues

The biggest challenge for me was to stay actively involved every week whilst completing other assignments

Working with other people that you cannot talk to directly is a valuable skill the is transferable to future employment, in that often you have to work with people from abroad via email

Jamie Quinn - Statistical Analyst (SA) Main Contribution  Statistical analysis in week two Providing feed back on the work of the group Being involved in group work and debates  Challenges Faced

I found myself struggling with many aspects of this week, such as staying involved in the work every week, this was due to several factors such as internet problems and busy schedules, i have tried to overcome these problems but they have caused me to be a little behind at times.

Skills Acquired

Getting accustomed to using a wiki page, which was a new concept for me, but i feel i have developed an able grasp of.

Working with new people without face-to-face contact Team work skills, such as debating and relaying feedback Problem Solving Discussion

Sophie Leatherbarrow – Evidence Disclosure Officer (EDO)

Main Contributions

Statistics and supporting evidence

Biggest Challenges Faced

The biggest challenge I have faced is trying to keep up with all individuals and their opinions; I found discussions difficult without face to face contact.

Acquired Skills

Something that I have acquired that I think will help me with further employment is following instruction from SIO and also using initiative to decipher ways to tackle tasks.