Criminal investigation:

Criminal investigation:An OverviewGeneral principlesInvestigation is the collection of facts to accomplish a three-fold aim:

1. to identify the suspect; 2. to locate the suspect; and 3. to provide evidence of his guilt.

In the performance of his duties, the investigator must seek to establish the six (6) cardinal points of investigation, namely: what specific offense has been committed; how the offense was committed; who committed it; where the offense was committed; when it was committed; and why it was committed. Protocols in InvestigationProtocol 1: Jurisdictional Investigation by the Territorial Unit Concerned

The Police Station, which has territorial jurisdiction of the area where the crime incident was committed, shall immediately undertake the necessary investigation and processing of the crime scene, unless otherwise directed by higher authorities for a certain case to be investigated by other units/agency.

Protocol 2: Official Police Blotter

A Police Blotter is an 18 x 12 logbook with hard-bound cover that contains the daily register of all crime incident reports, official summary of arrests, and other significant events reported in a police station.

As ageneral rule, all crime incidents must be recorded in the official police blotter.

A separate Police Blotter, however, shall be maintained for offenses requiring confidentiality like violence against women and children and those cases involving a child in conflict with the law to protect their privacy pursuant to R.A. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004) and R.A. 9344 (Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006).

The duty police officer shall record the nature of the incident in the police blotter containing the five Ws (who, what, where, when and why) and one H (how) of the information and inform his superior officer or the duty officer regarding the occurrence of such incident.

In answering the above 5Ws and 1H and the Case Disposition, all such material details about the incident, including the nature of the action or offense; the Date, Time, and Place of Occurrence; the names of the suspect/s, the victim/s, the witness/es, if any; facts of the case; significant circumstances that aggravate or mitigate the event or the crime should be entered along with the identity of the officer to whom the case is assigned (Officer-on-case); and, the status of the case.