Decision 1 - To Call the team in at 0800 hrs for briefing
Your Decisions Was To Have The Full Team Attend The Office At 0800 hours Ready To Be Briefed
Below are the pro's and con's of this decision
The pro's and con's are what any leader of an investigation has to go through prior to making any decision.
Their rationale is recorded in a decision log, often many books are completed on each investigation, for review at a later stage by any interested party.
Not all decisions will turn out to be correct with hindsight but as long as the rationale is recorded with what they knew at that time then every decision is explained.
Positives
For Your Decision
- Your team can immediately take control on the enquiry and prevent evidence being lost
- You and your senior management team will not require briefings in the morning and thus save valuable time
- You can review the cordons and crime scene to prevent any evidence loss at the earliest opportunity
- Any potential witnesses will still be at the scene and available for your officers to deal with them
- Easier for your team to travel into work due to less traffic
- The more officers available to deal with any issues that arise the better
- If a suspect is identified then your team will be able to conduct the man hunt
Negatives
Against You Decision
- The team could burn out if brought in early and not be fresh to deal with issues during the following day/evening
- Due to the locations of where your staff live they may not be able to get in for a number of hours and thus you will lose the gains in calling them in early
- As local officers are already dealing with any relevant witnesses your staff may be unable to take over certain enquiries immediately
- Limited local enquiries could be conducted due to lateness of hour such as CCTV or House to House
- Local staff could be redeployed and you would lose their assistance earlier than you would like putting more pressure on your team
Real Life
Would This Be The Actual Decision?
In this scenario it is unlikely the team would be called in to work during the middle of the night.
London officer's live in locations quite often a long way from work. We had officers in our team who lived in Brighton and St Neots. To wake everyone and call them in would not be practicable and would burn them out unnecessary early in the investigation.
Consider another decision as a better option.
