Investigator Report?

Question

I am looking for opinions from others for my criminal justice class:

If you were an investigator writing a report on a suspect whom you believe to be guilty but for whom the evidence is too weak to go to trial, would you exaggerate or add to the facts in your report? Why or why not?

PLEAE KEEP IN MY THIS IS FOR MY CLASS.......I DONT AGREE I JUST WANT OPINIONS.

Answer 1

I wouldn't but that is me.

I have served on jury duty before where I was the only one saying not guilty. My reason was because there was not an eye witness, no dna evidence and questionable circumstantial evidence. I was not going to convict a person based on motive only.

Meaning the only reason the others wanted to convict him was because he had 'reason' to commit the crime.

Answer 2

I am an investigator, and have had more than one occassion where I really believed that a particular suspect was guilty, but did not have enough to prove it. Every time, it's the same decision. The truth. Part of the Code of Ethics I swore to uphold is "honest in thought and deed".

I do absolutely everything I can legally do to gather evidence to prove who the guilty party is. Most of the time, I get enough evidence. Occassionally, I don't. It happens. If the suspect is really guilty, I'll either find that piece of evidence eventually, or catch them next time. My job is not to pass judgement. My job is to investigate, gather evidence, and find the truth about what happened.

My integrity and reputation is priceless. If I lie or fabricate evidence in one case, it would put every other case I ever worked in question. It would cast an ugly shadow over the profession that I have dedicated my life to. It would go against everything the criminal justice system represents. But more importantly, it would compromise my own morals and ethics, and go against everything I fight for on the streets every day. And that's why my report will always hold only the truth.

Answer 3

No. If I believed they were guilty I would find the evidence and possibly slant the truth a bit by use of more powerful adjectives and verbs, but I would not make up anything totally false. Thats not exaggeration either, just judicious use of the English language.
If I were that certain, I would have to have evidence, but the report is the extent of my job and then I would turn it over and let the prosecution do their job.

Answer 4

If I was an honest investigator, no. I would write in my final report that the person was considered suspicious, maybe even interrogated, but without altering the evidence I gathered, however weak.

Because I swore to serve my duty in honesty

Answer 5

you cant because the fact will prove you wrong and if you have to go to court you will be eat alive so stick to the fact because when you do everything fall in place look at oj case the cop all lied and nothing matched they had a good case but they blow it . allso its not up to you to find a person guilty its up to the court all your job is to report what you know about the case and leave it to the court to desided

Answer 6

Never First evidence has to be facts and proven. So you can't write it up different than it is. You have to hand this with the evidence to your supervisor, and only proven evidence will stand up in court

Answer 7

NO. That is horrible. You cannot judge someone without complete evidence in the affirmative or negative. What if you were in the opposite place and this could be done to you? Think about it.

Answer 8

In 21 years as a Police Officer I never found it necessary to embellish anything. If you have sufficient evidence, you can convict. If not, you can't convict and it's certainly not worth your reputation to embellish because all you have to do is get caught once and you are totally useless as a witness for the rest of your life.

Answer 9

NO!!!! Unfortunately this is done every day in law enforcement, and those that practice it should be discharged and punished to the FULLEST extent. WE do not punish people based on our opinions of them, we punish them based on the facts. Because so many in law enforcement exaggerate so much, so many people in the population DO NOT trust the police, myself included. Which is sad because these are people that promised to serve and protect us, but the only thing that they seem to protect is their own interests. NO ONE in my community would call the police for ANY reason, because whatever crime was committed, they aren't going to catch anybody, all they will succeed in doing is making the situation worse. Maybe there are some good police out there, but I have never met any in Peoria, Illinois or elsewhere. So in my communities opinion **** the police they aren't ****!!!! I hope you aren't planning in becoming one of them!!!! Yet another one that will put innocent men away.

Answer 10

If you're looking for a personal response...absolutely not.

If you're looking for a factual response, it happens more than we think. Law enforcement officials see the worst of people most of the time. After a while it sometimes becomes an us and them issue. If you're not law enforcement, you're a criminal if you appear to be one. Just look at the name of your course "Criminal Justice" it implies you are a criminal, yes?