Initial response to report crime.

Initial response to reported crime;

This is the first stage of the investigation process. In this stage the police are contacted when a crime has potentially been committed. The police can be notified of this in numerous ways; the most common way for the police to be notified would be by a 999 phone call. Another way a crime may be reported to the police would be by a physical reporting. A victim or a witness may go down to the police station to report the crime they have been a victim to or a witness of. Once the police have been notified in any way, they have to decide whether or not a crime has actually been committed. If they decide a crime has been committed, they will enable an appropriate response to this crime. The crime will be given a case number and a case file for the whole investigation of the crime. This response enabled by the police will depend on the crime committed itself. For example, if the crime that has been committed involves someone being injured, they will initiate an ambulance in their response, or if the crime involves a house fire and victims who have been burnt, they will enable the fire brigade and an ambulance as part of their response to the crime.

This stage of the investigation process is very important because without this stage, the crime would not be reported and therefore no investigation of the crime would be carried out. This stage is the first stage of the investigation because it is making the police aware of what has happened and also gives insight of what crime has been committed; therefore the investigation team know what they are investigating.

In the Madeleine McCann case that I have chosen to look at, this stage took place first. Madeleine and her two younger siblings were left at the family apartment sleeping whilst her parents; Gerry and Kate McCann and seven of their friends dined at a Tapas bar opposite the family apartment. Throughout the night, various adult members would make checks in on the children. The last check was made my Madeleine’s mother, Kate, and when she realised that Madeleine was missing from the bedroom, she ran back to the Tapas bar where the reception desk of the Tapas bar was told by a family friend to ring the police. The phone call to the police was made at 22:10pm. The first response made by the police was to activate its missing-child search protocol which involved sixty staff members and guests to search the resort for Madeleine. This took place until 4:30 am. Two officers arrived at the resort at 23:10 and carried out a brief search before contacting the criminal police to send more officers out. Patrol dogs and search and rescue dogs were also emitted in the police 

This stage was successful in this case study because officers were notified about the disappearance and arrived later to the scene. Two police officers made the first initial response which was successful in notifying other police patrols of the incident. Although the initial response was made, two police officers arrived at the scene just over an hour after the crime had been reported. A search patrol for Madeleine continued till 4:30 am the next morning which was a small length of time to search for her.