INVESTIGATION versus ACCUSATION

INVESTIGATION - An organized, cognitive process to determine the truth.(Tom Chase)
ACCUSATION - The act of accusing or state of being accused. (Dictionary.com)

The detective's job is to OBJECTIVELY conduct a comprehensive and unbiased enquiry. That effort is then documented in the investigative report.

When the facts are there the investigative report takes you through what happened and leads to a conviction.

When the facts are not there, the investigative report serves as the template for how the defense will fulfill its responsibility to competently and zealously represent the accused.

OBJECTIVITY is the key.

When the report is written OBJECTIVELY, that narrative documents an INVESTIGATION. When the report is written SUBJECTIVELY, that effort is an ACCUSATION. The TRUTH is established through INVESTIGATION not ACCUSATION.

The State has tremendous power when it chooses to arrest someone. When an arrest is pursuant to an INVESTIGATION, that is justice. When an arrest is pursuant to ACCUSATION, that is when you need an EXPERIENCED, COMPETENT private investigator.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU WORKING FOR?

When I contact someone for interview I make sure he/she knows who I am; that I am a PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR; that I AM NOT a police officer and that I have been engaged by an attorney on behalf of a client.

This usually leads to the question, "Which side are you working for?"

When I reply that I am employed by the accused, I explain further that my goal is to determine what they saw, what they heard, what they know and if possible who else was there. I explain that the purpose of my enquiry is to determine WHAT HAPPENED.

Many times the person will tell me, "I've already talked to the police, it's all in their report." While that may be the case, the SIXTH AMENDMENT to the CONSTITUTION provides for a defendant "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusations" and provides for "a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses. ." An independant investigation always identifies issues and observations that were not discovered previously.

Regardless of who is paying the bill, the the goal is the same - to establish THE TRUTH.