Managing criminal investigations

Prescriptive package designed to assist police managers to improve the success of their departments' criminal investigation efforts. While skilled detectives are often essential, there are a number of new methods police managers can adopt to improve investigative success. Management issues addressed include budgeting and allocating resources; improving relationships with the prosecutor; interacting with the public, especially victims and witnesses; improving relationships between investigators and patrol officers; decentralizing detective assignments, particularly in neighborhood team policing approaches; using civilian employees for investigative tasks; assigning personnel; supervising and training investigative personnel; improving investigative procedures; and conducting investigative activities not related to specific cases. The suggestions are based on an examination of the investigative practices of six selected police departments, a review of the relevant literature and recent experiments in other departments, and the observations and conclusions of a panel of experienced police officials. It is especially interesting to note that many of the ideas require little or no additional resources. This report is written primarily for police chiefs and heads of detective units, but should also be of interest to other police officials and to local government officials such as city managers.