Stage 1 Initial Response

Stage 1 Initial response to reported crime-

The initial response is how someone responses to the crime they have seen or even committed.  This could be by ringing the police on 999 or 911 for America. Anyone can ring the police, it could be a passer-by, the criminal, the victim or a neighbour who has heard a noise. Another way to report crime is to go to the police station and verbally report it. From the reported crime the police operator is told about the crime and they must decide whether the crime is serious or a hoax. By doing this they can decide how to respond to the crime, they can send out a response to the location where the crime has been reported from. Depending on the situation different response teams are sent out. For example if it is a small crime such as shop lifting, one or two officers will be sent but if it is a more serious crime such as an armed robbery or murder an advanced team would be sent to respond and help the situation happening. This stage is very important because reporting a crime is what starts the investigation off. By reporting a crime it means that it can be investigated as soon as possible and this helps to preserve forensic evidence and can make it easier to analyse the body. Also another reason is because if there are any witnesses nearby or suspected people they will still be nearby at the time and can be taken in for questioning. It also helps look after the public safety because when people are called they can protect the victim from any more problems. This is a very significant stage because this is the beginning of the criminal investigation steps, if this stage was missed out the criminal investigation wouldn’t of taken place as this is the initial response to start it. This stage helps make the investigation successful because it means that evidence can be persevered and this prevents overlooking it and also any witnesses and nearby people can be identified and looked further into.  If it wasn’t reported until a day later most evidence would be gone and all people nearby would be. Sometimes people can lose memory over a day and can forget important bits of the crime that had happened, so going to the crime scene straight away means that they will have the full of someone’s knowledge. If the call to the police station is not logged it can cause an acquittal. This is because for example if the criminal rang up about the crime it could give a clue that it was them by the way they explain the crime and talk on the phone. So if the call is not logged it can mean that evidence is overlooked and the person who rang up can be known as not guilty when it was them. But also for example if what the person said wasn’t logged and they weren’t the criminal they could be accused for being present at the time. This stage can involve a lot of ethical issues, This is because when a crime is committed a response team is sent out and this means there will be police cars and maybe ambulances with flashing lights. Some reporters and press may find this an opportunity to investigate into this commotion and go to interview people. This is ethical issues because many people will be too upset to be involved in all this press because there not sure what has happened and the press don’t care about their emotions just the story. Also if press are present when the police go to crime scene it could contaminate evidence because if they are in the way or stand on something, it means the evidence won’t be analysed correctly and other footprints will be present. Due to this evidence will be overlooked and it could cause acquittal of a guilty party because one of the reporter’s footprint could be found and they could be accused.

In the case I have researched about Sion Jenkins he was the person who found his daughter on the floor. Sion called for an ambulance and then phoned Denise franklin his friend to help as his wife was out. The first person to attend the scene was Denise Franklin. She lived in the neighbourhood and came over, when she saw Billie-Jo she told Sion to make a second call to 999. The ambulance was then second person to attend. The ambulance asked him questions such as did he move Billie-jo on her side, he said he did but there was a fact that he hadn’t. The time Billie Joe had been lying there for was unknown but it was around 20 to 30 minutes. Once the ambulance arrived they realised this wasn’t an accident this was a crime scene and Billie Jo had been a victim. The ambulance then contacted the police. A team of police were sent of and then cordoned off the crime scene a guard, forensic team and police man where sent out. Sion Jenkins was questioned by the police man. The FAO was PC Bruce, and he had been told by Sion that he had gone at with the two children at 2:55pm and came back at 3:30pm. But he had said different timing to the 999 operator. Sion claims only L had go into the house before their second journey but sion later admitted to going into the house before the second journey aswell. During the second journey, The second journey is after they dropped Ellen of to her house they decided to go to the Do-it-all store. They went around a park twice and then drove to the do-it-all store and when they got their sion claimed he had no money but went to purchase ‘white spirit’  But this wasn’t recorded down and due to this piece of evidence had to be overlooked because he didn’t record what Sion Jenkins was saying and memory is not enough evidence for the court. This could of caused the acquittal of the guilty party because without this important part of information which was from Sion Jenkins just after the accident happened we won't know his actual story and if it has changed throughout the investigation or not.