Identifying Suspects, Essay Example

Police officers who work different crime scenes must clearly and appropriately identify suspects in all cases to ensure fairness and sound judgment in their actions. It is important to address these scenarios with professionalism and integrity as expected from the position of police officer. Therefore, identifying potential suspects in a robbery case requires the ability to interview witnesses and obtain accurate information from these witnesses in an attempt to positively identify suspects. Police officers must be sufficiently organized and must conduct a thorough investigation to ensure that all bases are covered during the suspect identification phase.

The interview process for witnesses should be consistent for each individual, and should only consider information that is relevant to the case at hand. The interview questions should be brief yet thorough, and should not intimidate witnesses at any time. Police officers should demonstrate compassion for these witnesses, and should also be understanding of their potential fears in sharing what they know regarding the case. Therefore, officers must exercise sound and ethical judgment when interviewing, while also being non-threatening during this process. A professional demeanor which also demonstrates some degree of compassion is likely to be effective in making decisions regarding whether or not the witness is credible and his or her story is accurate. This practice also gives police officers some degree of legitimacy when conducting these interviews and in performing other job-related duties. Therefore, the interviewing process must not only be professional, but it should also encourage witnesses to be truthful in making their statements. This level of truthfulness will go a long way in bringing the correctly identified suspect(s) to justice. Police officers must be effective in these tasks to achieve the expected outcomes in interviewing witnesses to various crimes.