Writing a police report

Instructions:
Read the following scenario thoroughly. When you finish answer the question(s) that follow. Your answers should address each element of the question(s). You should respond in a narrative format which would be expected from a police report, rather than answering each question individually.

Scenario:
You are a patrol officer who was just dispatched to a burglary that had recently occurred to an electronics retailer in your district at 5600 S. Rush Road, Raleigh, North Carolina. While responding to the scene, the dispatcher advised that the business was closed and that the call originated from the alarm company. According to the alarm company, the front glass door to the business had been shattered. A video camera recorded a white male subject enter through the front door, jump the counter, and smash a glass cabinet with a baseball bat. The subject then removed several small boxes from the cabinet and then fled through the door he entered. From the video, the alarm company representative stated the white male was wearing a Carolina Panthers t-shirt, a NCSU ball cap, denim shorts, and had shaggy blonde hair down to his shoulders. Also, the suspect has a lean build, no facial hair, and appeared to be in his mid-twenties. A video camera outside the store captured the suspect’s vehicle as it exited the parking lot. The vehicle was described as a Red, 1989, Ford Mustang; with a North Carolina personalized plate that read, “Idiot 2342.”

A short time after you arrived on the scene, another officer spotted a car matching the description of your suspect’s vehicle approximately two miles from the crime scene. The car was abandoned along a busy highway and had a flat tire. From outside the car, you could see an aluminum baseball bat, several empty iPad boxes, and a NCSU ball cap. A computer check of the vehicle’s registration indicated it had an expired driver’s license. Both the registration and the driver’s license listed the subject’s residential address at 2145 Just Catch Me Drive, Louisburg, North Carolina.

Back at the crime scene, you observed small amounts of blood on glass fragments hanging from the front door. The entire entry-way to the business was covered in small glass fragments, along with behind the front counter. Several iPad boxes were on the floor. A representative from the business confirmed that 15 iPads were missing. Each iPad had a retail value of $499.00. The total loss from damage and theft was approximately $9000.00. The representative of the business stated that she was authorized by the owner to press charges. Additionally, the representative stated that no one was authorized to enter the closed business or take any property.

A representative from the alarm company notified you that their dispatcher believes she would identify the suspect in a photo line-up.

Questions:
1. Identify your primary and secondary crime scene. Describe what steps you would take to secure the crime scene.
2. Based on what you learned from your preliminary investigation, using either an inductive or a deductive method, devise a theory of what occurred. Based on your theory, identify evidence you’ll need to support your theory. With this question, feel free to pull from everything you’ve learned so far in class. Feel free to identify any potential sources of evidence that would help test your theory.
3. With any investigation, your goal is to identify corpus delecti evidence and associative evidence. Describe the evidence you have identified that serves as corpus delecti and/or associate evidence. What is the significance of the evidence?
4. Describe any hazards you may face at the crime scene.
5. Describe any techniques you’ve learned to analyze any forensic evidence in this scenario.
6. Considering what you have learned about search and seizure, under what conditions could you search the suspect’s vehicle? Describe at least two, but feel free to add more if you want.
7. Finally, were you able to identify a suspect? If so, describe the probable cause supporting your position and describe what actions you would take to arrest the suspect and recover additional evidence.