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IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES AND EARLY CONTRIBUTIONS TO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION:

1. EUGENE FRANCOIS VIDOQUE.


He was a former convict who became the head of the Surete Nationale (now known as the French Nationale
Police), which was recognized at that time as France's premier detective agency. He is credited for his effective
use of criminals to catch criminals. Vidoque's unorthodox approach later became a model for John Wilkes Booth
who infamously stated that "it takes a thief to catch another thief".

2. HENRY & JOHN FIELDING.


Henry Fielding was a traveling magistrate of England who established the world's first uniformed police force in Bow
Street, London, a road notorious for thievery. Also known as "runners" or "thief takers", they conduct patrol and
respond to reported incidents. When Henry died, he was replaced by his blind brother John as head of the Bow Street
Runners. This eventually became a model for the London Metropolitan Police Force (Scotland Yard) of Sir Robert
Peel.

3. DR. HANS GROSS.


Known as the "Father of Criminalistics".
He published a book entitled "Modern Criminal Investigation" which pave the way for Edmund Locard to incorporate
modern science to police works.

4. EDMUND LOCARD.
He was a French criminologist who established the world's first crime laboratory in Lyon, France. He expounded Dr.
Gross’ theory by stating that “when two objects come into contact with one another, they leave traces of each other
behind’. Meaning, Loacard stated that there is always something left behind at the crime scene. This became known
as Locard’s Exchange Principle upon which modern forensic science owes its theoretical foundation.

5. SIR LLEWELLEYN WILLIAM ATCHERLY.


He was the Chief Constable of West Riding, Yorshire. He pioneered the recording of Modus Operandi Files as
investigative aid that can be used to identify criminals based on the tools they use, the manner of commission, the
time of the crime, and other pertinent data.

6. THOMAS BYRNES.
He discovered that Modus Operandi do not remain the same and it changes as the career progression of the criminal
changes. He instituted the Bulmerry Morning Street Parade, a practice where captured criminals are paraded in front
of the police force in order to facilitate easy identification in case they commit crimes in the future. This is the origin of
the Police Line-Up.

7. ALPHONSE BERTILLON.
He was the “Father of Personal Identification” who framed Anthropometry (the individualization of a person based on
body measurements). This supplemented the practice of descriptive words accompanying a sketch in order to identify
criminals (also known as Portrait Parle French for “word picture” or “talking pictures”). With the advent of photography,
drawings became out of fashion. Nevertheless, the practice of accumulating Rogues Gallery became imbedded in
policing around the world.

8. JONATHAN WILD
He conceived a business of recovering stolen properties for a fee in England in the 17th Century (thief. takers).
Arguably the world's first private detective, he took advantage of a system of bounty and rewards set up by the British
Parliamentary Reward System.

9. ALAN PINKERTON.
He was a pioneer in non-government policing and private detective works in the US. The company he established
bore his name (Pinkertons) and have a logo of an eye with the inscription "we never sleep which the American public
came to know as "private eye". Among the famous cases they solved involved Harry "Sundance Kid" Longbaugh of
the Butch Cassidy outlaw gang. He is also credited for hiring the "first female involved in investigative works", MRS.
KATE WARNE. The Pinkertons are rivaled only by another private protection business known as the Wells Fargo &
Co.

10. AUGUST VOLLMER.


He served as an Army Sergeant in the Philippines during the Spanish-American war and became an Army Policemen
who oversaw the integration of former Guardia Civil into the new Insular Constabulary. His experience in the
Philippine convinced him of the need to professionalize policing and shield it from politics. He reluctantly accepted the
position of Marshal of Berkeley California when a posse was commissioned in order to respond to a train derailing
incident and it was then that his innovative approach to policing began to be recognized. Following the lead of
European development in Criminal Investigation, he established the first crime laboratory in the United States in order
to support his efforts to professionalize policing.

11. JOHN EDGAR HOOVER. A former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His efforts to centralize information
on fugitives, criminal activity, organized crime, fingerprints, etc., led to the further development of criminal
investigation.

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PHASES OF INVESTIGATION:

Before we proceed further to the tools of criminal investigation, it is important for you to know the overview of the criminal
investigation process. The following are the phases of criminal investigation:

1. IDENTIFICATION OF SUSPECT - The first objective of the criminal investigation is to identify the suspect. Hence, as
criminal investigator, your first job is to establish the identity of the perpetrator. The suspect/s can be identified through
confession, admission or testimony of an eyewitness:

A. Confession
It is the declaration of an accused expressing/acknowledging his guilt of the offense charge.

Effects of Confession:
a) May be given in evidence against him in the investigation or trial of the offense with which he is charged; and
b) May be given to prove the guilt of his companions but it must comply with the requirements set forth by the applicable
laws and procedure.

TYPES OF CONFESSION:
a. Judicial Confession or Confession done in open court;
b. Non-judicial confession which is also called "out of court" or "extra judicial confession". This kind of confession
is inadmissible unless corroborated by proof of corpus delicti. The confession to be admissible, it must be
voluntary, in writing and be made with the assistance of a counsel of his own choice with full understanding of the
consequence of such confession.

B. Admission
Is a self-incriminatory statement by the subject falling short of an acknowledgment of guilt. It is an acknowledgment of a
fact or circumstances from which guilt may be inferred. It implicates but does not incriminate.

It is also an acknowledgement that a fact, action or circumstances are true which strongly infer or directly admit guilt but
lacks the detail of the elements of the crime.

C. Eyewitness – person or persons who really witnessed how the crime was committed by the suspect(s) to the person of
the victim(s) and/or to the property stolen or taken.

Two Kinds of Criminals:


a. Known fugitive - a suspect who is known to the witness
b. Unknown fugitive – unidentified suspect

Methods of Identification by Witness


a. Verbal descriptions
b. Photographic files (Rogues Gallery)
c. General Photograph
d. Artist sketch (Composite Criminal illustration)
e. Social media investigation (the investigator may search for photos of suspects publicly posted thru social media
accounts such as Facebook and Twitter)

FACTORS AFFECTING POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION:


1. The ability of the witnesses to positively identify the unknown criminals, depends upon his level of alertness,
intelligence, vision, age and health.
2. The prevailing conditions of visibility and observation of the crime scene
3. The lapse of time between the commission of the crime and the arrest of the offender.
4. The opportunity of the criminal to vary his personal appearance such as the removal of moustache, side burns,
goatee, the change to hair style, the addition of tattoo on the face, earrings, nose, rings, lip rings or facelift thru
surgery.

Procedures of identification by an eyewitness


a. Police line-up means of selecting a suspect from a group of innocent persons usually composed of seven to ten
persons. The purpose of line-up is to eliminate the power of suggestion.
b. Police show-up only one person is shown to the witness usually at the scene of the crime and made immediately
after the arrest of the suspect.
c. Photo-line up – this is the same as the police line-up. However, the investigator uses photographs of different
individuals for identification instead of actual persons.

2. TRACE AND LOCATE THE SUSPECT/GUILTY PARTY

The second phase of criminal investigation is to locate the perpetrator. The following methods can be used in locating the
suspect:

a. Use of observation, description, and identification (ODI);

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b. Knowing his old and present addresses, hangouts, lairs, friends, associates, girlfriends or mistresses, etc. (family
and parents);
c. His full name and known aliases; and
d. Modus Operandi, marks, tattoos, criminal records, employments, LTO records, SSS Number and others.

NOTE: Databases of government agencies such as the NBI, PNP, LTO, PSA, etc. may be used to locate or track the
suspect. The investigator must prepare a formal letter addressed to the concerned government agency requesting the
desired information about the suspect.

What is Modus Operandi?


Modus operandi
- means the method of operations. It enables the investigators to recognize a pattern of criminal behavior, to
predict, approximate the next target of the criminals and to assist complainants to recognize the suspect by
means of recorded information concerning the characteristics of criminal activities.

3. PROVE THE GUILT OF THE SUSPECT BY EVIDENCE:


a. In proving the guilt of the suspect/accused in court, the fact of existence of the crime must be substantially
established; the defendant (accused) must be identified and associated with the crime scene; competent and
credible witnesses must be available and be identified; and the physical evidence must be appropriately available
and presented; and
b. The proof of guilt will depend on the establishment of the essential elements of the crime. The investigator must
know by heart the elements of every specific offense/crime.

WHAT IS PHYSICAL EVIDENCE?


Physical evidence - refers to those materials found at the crime scene, on the victim or found in a suspect's possession.
These are articles/items found in connection with the investigation.

THREE (3) KINDS OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:


A. Corpus Delicti is the body, foundation or substance of crime. It refers to the fact of the commission of the crime, not to
the physical body of the deceased person (People vs. Penaflor, 2015). In short, it is the evidence that a particular crime
has been committed.
B. Associative evidence - These are the pieces of evidence that will link the suspect to the crime scene. The suspect
may leave some clues at the scene such as weapons, tools, garments or prints.
C. Tracing Evidence - these are pieces of evidence which may help locate the suspect.

WHAT IS CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE?


Circumstantial evidence - are facts or circumstances from which, either alone or in connection with other facts, the
identity of the person can be inferred. These are generally the physical evidence. Physical evidence are like puzzle pieces
which when put together reveal a convincing picture pointing to the conclusion that the accused is the author of the crime
(People vs. Bacares, 2020).

STANDARD METHODS OF RECORDING INVESTIGATIVE DATA:


1. Photographs;
2. Sketch or sketching the crime scene;
3. Notes or note taking (what you have seen or observed);
4. Developing or lifting of latent prints found at the crime scene;
5. Gathering, locating, tagging, and preserving physical evidence;
6. Taking and applying plaster cast or moldings;
7. Tape recording of sounds (of interview, etc.);
8. Video tape recording of objects and scenarios; and
9. Taking of written statements of subject(s) and witness(es).

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