The Incident Room
Following the investigation plan the Incident Room is usually the next thing to be set up although sometimes it may not be used; they are set up by major incident teams (MIT). An incident room/ major incident room within an investigation can either be an on-site facility within the police station or a base that is being used by the police throughout the case a base can be many places ranging from the school lunch room to the college hall. By using bases for an incident room this could increase the amount of drop in’s they receive, the base should be local where all people are able to easily access it. It is important to have an incident room within every case as you are able to co-ordinate all operations from one place which is an advantage as you won’t need to move around or visit different sites to gather witness statements/ any other statements needed. Phone calls are set up to the incident room and a specific number will be given out for all people to ring, this ensures all calls can be recorded by people working at the same base which means all of the same information will be recorded. There are specific things that need to be recorded when calls are sent into the incident room, these are the time the call was received and also the date the call was received on also the information given will be recorded by either being written down by the call operative or the phone call can be recorded for further reference. This is an important stage in each case for many reasons, the main being it allows many people to help with the investigation instead of just the police focusing on trying to solve the case themselves. Within a child abduction it is also important, as it allows the community it to stay up to date with information on the case for example if there is a search for the children many more people may be involved in this.
Decisions are made by members of the local authorities/ police force throughout their time of using the incident room; this can be what stage to carry out next. Depending on the amount of useful evidence given by witnesses they may be able to put suspects together to interrogate next. It is important to have a incident room within the case for many reasons and this was shown within the Soham murders, it allows everyone to get involved with the case as well as ensure that all information is given to the police as soon as possible which may make finding the body/ victim alive and well a possibility or it may even help prevent a serious case from occurring. The incident room helps eliminate and suspect people being guilty or not guilty of the crime, through the amount of information given and the amount that is near enough the same. For example if this was to be a murder and the body had been left outside a building people may see the suspect fleeing the scene but may describe him differently, this will mean the evidence isn't valid enough. If the incident room is set up immediately this may result in more evidence being valid as it will be fresh in the witnesses mind for them to comment on it and report it.
Decisions are made by members of the local authorities/ police force throughout their time of using the incident room; this can be what stage to carry out next. Depending on the amount of useful evidence given by witnesses they may be able to put suspects together to interrogate next. It is important to have a incident room within the case for many reasons and this was shown within the Soham murders, it allows everyone to get involved with the case as well as ensure that all information is given to the police as soon as possible which may make finding the body/ victim alive and well a possibility or it may even help prevent a serious case from occurring. The incident room helps eliminate and suspect people being guilty or not guilty of the crime, through the amount of information given and the amount that is near enough the same. For example if this was to be a murder and the body had been left outside a building people may see the suspect fleeing the scene but may describe him differently, this will mean the evidence isn't valid enough. If the incident room is set up immediately this may result in more evidence being valid as it will be fresh in the witnesses mind for them to comment on it and report it.
The Soham Murders and The Incident Room...
The incident room was a vital step within the Soham murders, although this may not be the same for other cases this was one of the most important within the search for Jessica and Holly. The incident room had many witnesses speaking up clamming to have seen the girls one being Ian Huntley, Huntley admitted to the police voluntary he had seen the girls but they had later left his company and he didn't know what had happened to them. Due to the lack of focus from the police the man that murdered both girls was in fact helping with the investigation, Ian Huntley was seen comforting the parents of both Holly and Jessica throughout there time in the incident room he was also seen helping around the incident room with the police and local agents he is seen in the picture located above. When gathering witness statements of people in the incident room one job from the police was to check the back ground on these individuals and ensure they wasn't covering up something they had committed. Due to Ian's past and recent meetings with the police he should have been a vital suspect within the case as he had been charged of many sexual assaults but these had later been dropped. When searching for Ian in the data base nothing had come up due to the changing of his name, this would have made it hard for police to find out background information on him although this should have been done. The incident room was set up in the school for two weeks which ensured all information was given, if the police and MIT focused more on the incident room and the people inside it could have been a possibility that they may have found Holly and Jessica a lot sooner.