U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Preliminary Investigation

NCJ Number
127209
Date Published
1990
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This guide is designed to assist the instructor in developing an appropriate lesson plan to cover the performance objectives for training California police in preliminary investigation and information gathering.
Abstract
The learning goal for preliminary investigation is to gain the ability to conduct a preliminary investigation under simulated field conditions. The learning goal for information gathering is to learn the types and means of gathering information. Objectives that serve these learning goals are outlined in the guide. An outline of the course content for preliminary investigation has the main topics of "definition and objectives," "general preliminary investigation techniques," and "simulated instruction demonstration of a preliminary investigation." Major topics for the course content on information gathering are "introduction to information sources," "identifying and developing the informant," "physical objects as information sources," and "information obtained from private records and documents." The course outline summarizes the course content under each of these major topics. Supporting material includes investigator guidelines for requesting artist's composites, a list of "don'ts" when dealing with informants, and a listing of useful public records and document sources. 24 references