Investigating Leads

Investigating Leads...

To gain a suspect within a crime specific forensic strategies need to be followed correctly. In order for these strategies to be followed procedures and protocol need to be put in place and professional performance needs to occur. This means that collecting evidence within a crime scene needs to be done accurately and efficiently, for example collecting biological, chemical and physical evidence. Pathology results also links into this, if any blood is taken from the crime scene, path results can confirm whether it was the victims or not. If the blood is from a previously convicted criminal their DNA will be located upon the police records. If this is case the police will be able to locate this person and bring them in for questioning. This may be the criminal within the investigation and an arrest can be made with sufficient evidence.

Within this stage house to house inquiries are performed by the police investigation team. A police team will question the local area of where the crime has been committed and query any member of this area seen or heard anything when the crime occurred. This is vital within the investigation as eye witness accounts can place a suspect at the scene of the crime, or it can help the police understand what actually happened within the crime.

Another process which needs to occur within this stage is looking through any CCTV footage which may have filmed the crime. The CCTV footage can play a vital role within the investigation as, like the house to house inquiries it can place a suspect at the scene and help the officers understand what happened within the incident. The CCTV can also help within court allowing for a more persuasive argument that the suspect is guilty of this crime. If there is no suspect within the investigation and the incident is caught on CCTV with an image of the criminal it allows for this person to be caught with ease if the authorities have an image of what the person looks like.

Within this stage a strategy called TIE is performed. TIE stands for Trace, Interview and Eliminate. Within this stage any leads within the investigation are traced, once been traced they are then interviewed. Within the interview questions are asked and the answers will lead police to believe that the person is either guilty or innocent of the crime. If the person is innocent this lead is then eliminated and the police move onto the next suspect.

When questioning the victim (if there is one) and any witnesses present to the crime there may possibly be leads within the case surrounding a suspect. the victim/eyewitness may know the person who committed the crime and if not they will be asked to describe the criminal and special technology will help the police locate the criminal. 

Investigating Leads within the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman

Within the collection of evidence throughout the scene of the crime evidence was not collected sufficiently and correctly. Evidence was placed into bags with other pieces of evidence meaning vital pieces of evidence were contaminated and no research could have been used within court as the way the SOCO's collected the evidence was against protocol. Within the collection of blood throughout the scene, no actual blood was collected however it was recorded within Mike Furhman's (one of the FAO's within the crime scene). Blood was reportedly located next to foot prints but never taken. Therefore pathology tests where never taken.

Throughout this crime there was no CCTV recorded only eyewitness account to place a 'hooded' OJ leaving the scene and getting into his car located a few houses down from Nicole's condo. These eyewitness accounts where taken within the stage of door inquiries and they consisted of statements quoting that they seen OJ wearing all Black clothing and hooded. Witness Jill Shively says she saw OJ driving his speeding Bronco from the murder scene around the time of the incident.

Due to the evidence collected from the crime scene linking to OJ Simpson a warrant for his arrest was underway. Many pieces of evidence linked to him for example the footprint found matched his foot size and the shoe was one of a kind. Also the eyewitness accounts helped the police link this crime to OJ Simpson. 4 days after the murders occurred OJ was involved in a high speed chase with the police and was later caught and arrested and taken in for questioning.