A police investigation is the process that detectives follow in order to build a case against suspects who may be charged with offences committed. This process involves many different steps including physical evidence gathering, interviews with victims & witnesses and surveillance techniques used. It’s important that anyone who is involved in this type of investigation seek legal advice from a criminal defence lawyer before facing police questions alone.
An investigation can be a long and drawn-out process but it’s important that police officers always keep the desired results in mind to provide focus and priority to their overall investigative thinking. This can help them articulate their reasoning to the court when they are asked about their actions in the event of a criminal trial. These desired results could include things such as ensuring that evidence is not destroyed, identifying a suspect, or that an offence was committed.
Police will often collect physical items of evidence at a crime scene like weapons, blood samples, fibres, footprints, fingerprints and more. They will also take photographs and measurements to document the evidence. They will then send some of the physical evidence to labs for testing to ensure that it is valid. All of this evidence is carefully recorded and accounted for in an effort to establish an unbroken chain of custody in the event of a court trial.
If they determine that the event is classified as a level one priority and there’s an immediate threat to life safety, investigators have the authority under the Criminal Code of Canada to use the powers of exigent circumstances to enter private property without a warrant in order to neutralize the danger to the lives of people on the scene. In this scenario, the investigators would be able to enter the home where they believed the suspect was still in possession of the bloody knife.