The most glamorous aspect of police work
1. The basic responsibility of the police is to fight crime, maintain order and provide miscellaneous services to the public. Criminal investigation is the most glamorous aspect of policing. Most police officers regard detective work as a «real» police work. Detective work has a specific mission: apprehending the offender. The quality of work can also be measured in terms of the number of arrests. This contrasts with patrol duty, which largely involves peace-keeping. Good detectives are able to solve even complicated crimes.
2. The process of investigating a crime must involve several different steps performed by at least three different units within the police department: patrol officers, detectives, criminalistics technicians. The two major stages of the investigation process are the preliminary investigation and the follow-up investigation.
3. The preliminary investigation is normally the responsibility of the patrol officer who is the first to arrive at the scene of the crime. His major responsibilities are: arresting any suspect or suspects; providing aid to victims; securing the crime scene to prevent loss of evidence, collecting all relevant physical evidence. Once the responding officer has completed the preliminary investigation, the case is assigned to the detective bureau for the follow-up investigation. In all but the smallest departments, the detective unit is separate. The smallest departments have no separate detective unit. Medium-sized departments have a separate detective unit but detectives here are to handle all types of crime. Larger departments specialize according to the type of crime: crimes against person; crimes against property, etc.
4. Technical specialists are normally located in a separate administrative unit. They are to assist detectives in the follow-up investigation. Only the larger police departments are able to maintain their own criminalistics specialists. There are several steps in the follow-up investigation. They include interrogation of suspects, if arrested at the crime scene, interview of witnesses; search of the crime scene for physical evidence, modus operandi review to determine if the crime is similar to others tinder investigations or resembles crime committed by known suspects, development of additional information from informants, contacts, official records.
5. To obtain information about suspect criminal activity, the police have to make use of informants. Persons who are either criminals themselves or associate with criminals are extremely valuable sources of information. Police offices seek to develop the list of informants.
Пояснения к тексту
miscellaneous services – разнообразная помощь;
in terms of – с точки зрения;
follow-up investigation – текущее расследование, вторичное расследование;
to assign – передавать, поручать;
modus operandi (Lat.) – способ совершения преступления, «почерк».
VIII. Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих слов.
1. основная обязанность
2. поддерживать правопорядок
3. задержание преступника
4. криминалист (специалист по криминалистике)
5. предварительное дознание
6. место преступления
7. подозреваемый
8. предотвратить утрату улик
9. относящиеся к делу вещественные доказательства
10. в соответствии с
11. преступление против личности
12. допрос
13. опрос свидетелей
14. осмотр места преступления
15. разработка дополнительной информации
16. осведомитель
17. официальный архив (досье)
18. преступная деятельность
19. ценный источник информации
20. стараться, пытаться.
IX. Найдите в 1-ом и 3-ем абзацах три предложения, содержащие модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты. Подчеркните их, предложения выпишите и письменно переведите их на русский язык.
X. Письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы к тексту.
1. What may be called the basic responsibility of the police?
2. How can you define a specific mission of detective work?
3. Who is as a rule involved in the process of investigation?
4. What is the use of modus operandi review?
5. Why do police officers seek to develop the list of informants?