Investigating Cold Cases - Essay Example

There are a lot of problems that arise while trying to resume a cold case. One is the non-availability of bandwidth to continue the investigation on the case. The other problem is the lack of funds to support the investigation. Also, the people following up on a cold case might get transferred or retired, and the successor might not be able to solve the case, either because of loss of interest or lack of experience in solving such cases (Karen M. Hess). Cold cases may prove to be very dangerous at times, where the criminal, if not arrested because of lack of evidence, might keep committing the same crime again and again.

This could have results as bad as the loss of several lives. It is advisable to have a cold case squad at all times in the organization. This is because the regular police staff might not be able to follow up on the cold cases because of the increasing crime rates. Such squads should have the right proportion of people who can manage and ones who can investigate. In such squads, the essential requirement is to have an anchor at all points of time. An anchor is a person who has the information and context of the case being investigated.

So, having one such person in the squad at all points of time ensures that the team is not low on context even when the old people leave the squad and new people join. A cold case squad is either part-time or full time depending on the need. Mostly, a lieutenant is hired to manage the squad (John Douglas). He is the interface of the squad to the outer world ( i.e. the community, press, police department, and the law enforcement agencies). The next person as part of the squad is the supervisor.

A supervisor is responsible for managing the daily operations of the squad. Other members of the squads are detectives. The detectives can range from the ones who are a part of the squad full time to the ones who deliver only a part of their time to the case.