Criminal Investigations Midterm

Latin term “to trace” or “track”

Vestigarre

Which term describes the legal process in which a conclusion follows from specific facts?

Deductive reasoning

A criminal's modus operandi involves the details of:

How, when, & where a criminal usually operates

A logical process of investigation includes:

Obtaining physical evidence, interviewing…

A fact is:

An action, event, circumstance, or actual thing done

Inference is:

The process of reasoning by which a fact may be deduced

Securing the crime scene is a major responsibility of the:

First on scene

Spontaneous statements said by a suspect at the time of a crime concerning & closely related to actions involved in a crime…

res gestae​

At the death scene, what's the immediate concern?

Preserving the scene

Crime mapping focuses on:

Hot spots & where crimes occur

Disadvantage of photographs:

Do not show actual distances

What type of camera to cause privacy concerns:

Body-worn cameras

Photos should be taken:

Before anything is disturbed

Admissible photos must be:

Material

What direction should the top of a sketch be oriented:

North

Other than writing reports, first responders spend a majority of their time:

Driving around patrolling zones

Citizen online report writing is appropriate for

Discovery crimes

Who is most likely to read an investigative report:

The judge

Which is associated with some of the common problems with police reports:

Misspelled words

The disposition of the case is stated in the _____ paragraph of the report:

Final

Officers should write reports in the:

First person

Due process disclosure of what type of evidence must be determined & made by the prosecutor?

Exculpatory information

Which of the following statements is in the first person:

“I made the arrest”

One benefit of a well-written report is that it can:

Reduce legal liability for the officer and the department

Officers should not use police jargon in their reports:

True

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution forbids what type of searches and seizures?

Unreasonable

In which of the following cases is a search legal?

The search is incidentful to a lawful arrest

A judge may issue a search warrant if which of the following items are being sought by an officer:

Stolen or embezzled property

A search conducted with a warrant must be limited to:

Only the specific room in the house

The most important limitation on searches is that they must be:

Narrow in scope

Which of the following is a goal of a search during an investigation

Identify who committed the crime

What do investigators need to search for in order to conduct an effective search

Physical evidence

A lane search or partitioning the area into lanes:

Can be adapted to any number of police personnel

In California v. Greenwood, the Supreme Court ruled:

Containers left on public property are open to search by police without a warrant

Every lawful arrest is accompanied by a search of the arrested person to protect the arresting officers and to prevent:

Destruction of evidence

What type of evidence forms a substantive part of the case or has legitimate & effective influence on the decision of the case?

Material evidence

What type of evidence has been properly collected, identified, filed, and continuously secured?

Competent evidence

Integrity of evidence refers to the requirement that any item introduced in court must be in the same condition as when it was found at the crime scene. This is documented by the chain of evidence, also referred to as:

Chain of custody

Number one mistake officers make in processing fingerprints with powder is:

Overprocessing fingerprints

When evidence is collected, an officer should record in their notes the:

Time, date, location the item was found, individual who found it, case number, description of item, who took it into custody

Which case law is incidental to a search?

Chimel v. California

Consent to search is only valid if given under this condition

Voluntarily

This photographic technique in which a scene is photographed, then again in a clockwise manner

Overlapping search

How, when, & where the criminal operate

Modus operandi

The courts have rules that when police take custody of a vehicle or other property, police may:

Take inventory of the property

DNA is an organic substance contained in a cell's nucleus

TRUE

DNA is extermely durable and is generally unaffected by heat, sunlight, moisture, bacteria, or mold

FALSE

Latent prints have benn collected from human skin

True

Investigators have used lip impressions to solve cases

True

Evidence may be placed in any container, as long as it does not touch other evidence

False

Emergency circumstances that allow an officer to enter a home without a warrant

Exigent circumstances

The doctrine that allows automobiles to be searched because of thier obvious mobility

Carroll Doctrine

Nix v WIlliams ruled this exception of the exclusionary rule

Inevitable Discovery

Identification system including written description, complete measurements, and photograph of a person

Bertillon identification systems

What happens to evidence after it is no longer needed?

Evidence is destroyed, auctioned/sold, or returned to owner

Case law to support officer’s rights to conduct a pat-down

Terry v. Ohio

Type of print taken of person meant to be at crime scene

Elimination fingerprints

Type of light used for trace evidence

UV Light

Rule states courts will not take evidence obtained by unreasonable search & seizure

Exclusionary rule

Case which established the Good Faith exception to the exclusionary rule

U.S. v. Leon