Investigation and Reporting of a Crime, Essay Example

Ethical Issues Involved in the Investigation and Reporting of a Crime

Police and detectives certainly have a difficult and tedious job when investigating various crimes. They have to adhere to the law, rules and policies and adhere to ethical perspectives that could compromise the investigation. What comes to mind is ‘proving the initiator of an illegal or unsolicited illegal text message’ whilst conducting an internet or any other related investigation whether civil or criminal. With today’s technology it is very easy for a person to open an account under a ‘false and malicious name’ and represent themselves as another for the purposed of committing fraud or any other internet crime which could be used against another purpose in a court of law. For example: A person can go to google.com and open an account using a false name and after opening that account they can send a ‘malicious and criminal email’ to another person either threatening them or bringing false witness to that person in attempt to discredit that person’s character. This is often seen when two people are fighting litigation in custody battles. Under the Communications Act emails can be brought as ‘evidence’ to use against another person if it is found there is ‘reasonable suspicion to believe’ the person sending the email is the person that has committed the crime or devious email. “Aufderheide states “The Act describes new issues now facing the public with reference to emails, facsimiles and other telecommunications of today (1999).

There are ways to protect the harmless sender by tracing IP addresses to determine the source of the email but sometimes when a person is involved in demanding litigation the investigators may ‘tend to believe’ that person sent the email and had no part of it. A person’s reputation and credibility may be on the line in the eyes of the detectives and in the court of law.

Hence, when investigating internet related emails which can be used as evidence in a court of law, an investigator must investigate with due diligence and complete professionalism to ensure what it being said is from the ‘correct source’ and another person is not ‘maliciously and fraudulently using this information’ to defame that person. Kooken states  enforcement of laws and ethics is based upon the dependence of public support more than any other function in law (2010). Part of this dependence is following the law according to public policy by pressure of the people.  Ethical standards and procedures can be accomplished by thorough IP traces and simply not allowing emails ‘into evidence’ without ‘proper proof’ that the sender was actually the real sender and ‘not an impersonator’. We should keep in mind that people’s emails can be easily broken into without regard for prosecution of internet fraud. Any crime that can be committed on the internet is still a crime, hence it is simply intellectual property related. Judges, lawyers, prosecutors and investigators really need to ‘crack down’ on this internet ‘theft of another’s account and impersonating another to bring harm in the eyes of the police and the court of law’.

References

Department of Justice (2010) Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section Retrieved July 8, 2010 from, http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/privacy.html

Ethics, Integrity and Police Misconduct (2010) Retrieved July 8, 2010 from, http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/6/6/8/4/p66840_index.html

Aufderheide, P. Communications Policy and the Public Interest The Guildford Communication Series New York: NY Guildford Press, 1999.

Kooken, D. Ethics in Police Service American Journal of Police Service Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1931-1951).