Description
The preliminary investigation is the police agency’s first response to a report that a crime has occurred. As in every investigative effort, the primary objective of the preliminary investigation is to determine who committed the crime and to apprehend the offender. The preliminary investigation collects evidence which supports that a crime has occurred, the identification of the offender, and the arrest and subsequent conviction of the offender. The framework of the preliminary investigation is based on the following major tasks: (1) verification that an offense has occurred; (2) identification of the victim, the place of the crime, and the time of the crime; (3) identification of solvability factors; (4) communication of the circumstances of the crime; and (5) the identification of those investigative tasks completed and those yet to be done.
