The Investigation Plan
An investigation plan is carried out to ensure that a good planned investigation is carried out which will minimize errors. The investigation needs to be planned in detail deciding what step they are going to take next, this comes after the preliminary and follow up investigations as all evidence and witness statements have been gathered so it is there decision on how to act upon this and what to do next. This stage gives the authorities control over the case, as they are able to decide what to do with it, although there is a natural order a case should be dealt with, this can be change due to the type of the case and also the police decisions. As long as each process is carried out the order doesn't really matter some procedures are more important to different cases. When the scene has been correctly identified the next thing to do will be to gather all evidence from the scene, in order to forensically analyse it. There is a plan formed that will be documented on what to carry out next and what evidence to analyse first, if there is a more important piece of evidence which can tie the suspect to the scene this may be dealt with first so the police have a reason to hold the suspect behind bars throughout the investigation.
Depending on the type of crime carried out this can mean the next step can vary, for example if it has been a child abduction and there is no crime scene to gather evidence from expect from the last place they where seen the next step would be carrying out a search party or may be to do house to house esquires in order to gather evidence on what people have seen and also search the homes of suspects. By carrying out a investigation plan it ensures that nothing is over looked within a case and everything is referred to throughout, it also means the case is more organised and will have more control in the court of law. Within this step the police will ensure that have all evidence if they are able to retrieve it they will also ensure that all statements from witnesses and suspects are documented for for further reference. All leads will be identified in the investigation plan from the most important to the least, the most important lead will be acted upon first as it may have more impact on the case where as the least can be left until the important details have been dealt with.
Depending on the type of crime carried out this can mean the next step can vary, for example if it has been a child abduction and there is no crime scene to gather evidence from expect from the last place they where seen the next step would be carrying out a search party or may be to do house to house esquires in order to gather evidence on what people have seen and also search the homes of suspects. By carrying out a investigation plan it ensures that nothing is over looked within a case and everything is referred to throughout, it also means the case is more organised and will have more control in the court of law. Within this step the police will ensure that have all evidence if they are able to retrieve it they will also ensure that all statements from witnesses and suspects are documented for for further reference. All leads will be identified in the investigation plan from the most important to the least, the most important lead will be acted upon first as it may have more impact on the case where as the least can be left until the important details have been dealt with.
The Soham Murders and The Investigation Plan
Throughout the investigation plan the case was referred to as "operation finchman" the police had to make many decisions throughout the case as there was no initial crime scene until the bodies were found. This means they had to make decisions on what to do when the crime was reported, which was to form a search party in order to find the girls they also had to make decisions through the finding of evidence. Once the bodies and pieces of evidence where found there decisions where to analyse all evidence and link it to a suspect for prosecution. Although this was planned within the case the case had little amounts of planning, this was commented on many times as the police had no real plan for the case this resulted in many things going wrong. For example within the incident room the witnesses wasn't further looked into analysing there back ground and criminal convictions so this lead Ian Huntley being able to stand in the incident room comforting the parents of the children he had murdered. There was many comments made by the media towards the police through planning the investigation the media commented on the case they were carrying out by saying the force didn't have the ability to run a high profiled case, they also commented on the fact the Chief Constable wasn’t present for the investigation which was poor. The polices main focuses was to find the girls alive and well so they made numerous appeals for them to return home. The appeals where given by the children's family as well as the police themselves, Maxine Carr who also played a role in the girls murder was appealing on SKY news with a card the children had made her. If the police had investigated Carr's boyfriend Huntley this may have never happened and the bodies may have been found sooner.