Initial Response

The initial response is the first stage of a criminal investigation, it is vital that it is carried out primarily because if the crime is not reported then the police will not have a crime to respond to, therefore there will be no investigation thus not a successful outcome.

Firstly, the police tend to be alerted of the crime by a routine 999 call, whether it is by the victim or an individual who has witnessed the crime. It is then their job to identify whether a crime has actually taken place and if there has; they are then to make a judgement of the appropriate people to send out to the scene whether it would be ambulance, bomb squad or the fire brigade etc. Once the crime has been formally recorded on the police database, it is assigned a case number which will be specific to that particular case and it will be used throughout the investigation and can be referred to once the case is closed.

Typically it is a uniformed officer that will arrive at the scene first (known as the first attending officer). It is the uniformed officer’s duty to corner off the scene to reduce the possibility of contamination which will later affect the criminal investigation. The police officers other responsibility is to ensure the safety and well-being of the victim if they are not deceased and ensure that no unofficial member trespasses on the crime scene.

In the case I studied, Christine Jessop’s mother, Janet Jessop, notified the police between 7:00 and 8:00 pm on October 3^rd 1984. She alerted the York Regional police by calling 911 and reported her daughter missing. In response to the phone call, York Regional Police instantly sent members of their force to the house to question the family, constable McGowan and Bunce were the first officers to arrive at the Jessop household.

The body of Christine Jessop was found on the 31st December when an onlooker found a body on a routine leisurely walk. They immediately went back home, and called the Durham police department. Initially the police responded by going to the crime scene and parking their cars at an angle to block off the entrance to the field.  It is essential that the police force acted quickly once they received the phone call to ensure the scene wouldn’t get contaminated any further which would hinder the investigation.