The robbery at the U.S. Bank, 1965 Diamond Blvd, requires thorough preliminary investigations to facilitate the identification of the prime suspect, and those may have helped him in his heinous activity. The initial step would involve identifying and effectively securing the crime scene. Although some officers had arrived at the bank earlier, they had not fully secured the area, especially its front doors, allowing people to continue flowing into the bank compound. The primary objective of securing the crime scene is to preserve all the evidence that can help trace and identify the bank robbery suspect.
The step that will follow in the preliminary investigation is developing and communicating a plan to the team members. The type of crime was already identified when the bank manager reported it. Therefore, important activities that the investigating team will include in his step are identifying any threat to evidence, all resources required to gather the evidence, and signaling the team members to proceed with the investigation. The main threat to the evidence of the bank robbery is new customers accessing the building and allowing people within the crime scene to move around.
After securing the crime scene, the next step is to ensure that the investigators protect all the areas the suspect used to access and exit the bank as well as where he stood and touched. Protecting the entrance, where the suspect was waiting and standing at the counter, is instrumental in identifying any physical evidence related to the crime, such as dust particles and hair. The investigators can use these objects in forensic analysis to help identify the suspect and where he may have come from. Although the people at the bank contradicted the type of shoes the suspect was wearing, tennis shoes and boots can carry dust particles that can help the investigation. Further investigation of the protected areas would focus on the glass and the counter where the suspect might have touched his hand. Veronica Bradley, the crime’s victim teller, indicated that the suspect was not wearing gloves. Therefore, he must have left fingerprints at the counter and the glass of the main entrance. During this step, the team will capture photographs and comprehensive notes of the protected areas.
The team will then collect evidence such as fingerprints and footwear impression marks from where the areas where the suspect stood. The investigators will photograph the glass in a high resolution, where the suspect is believed to have touched, to collect fingerprints. Equally, they will dust fingerprint powder on the counter used by the suspect and capture and lift any print that may appear on the surface using adhesive tape. Footwear examination will help resolve the discrepancies about the type of shoes the suspect was wearing. The investigating team will use chemicals, powders, or alternative light sources to identify invisible shoeprints on the bank floor where the suspect was waiting and at the counter.
The investigation focus will then shift to questioning all the crime witnesses. Both bank staff and customers who were present when the suspect accessed and left the building will be investigated, and the information given will be recorded for further analysis. All the witnesses will be separated and questioned individually by different team members. This strategy of separating the witnesses will help prevent them from the possibility of sharing details about the incident with one another or working together to create a cover story. The main questions will be about what the witnesses saw and how well they can describe the suspect. The investigating will also ask the staff to give their opinion about how the suspect knew a GPS transponder was attached to the money he stole. Veronica Bradley will further be requested to produce the handwritten given by the suspect during the crime. The witnesses’ statements will be recorded manually and digitally for further analysis to help identify the suspect and if there was an insider who might have helped him.
The last phase of preliminary investigations will focus on reviewing CCTV footage. The investigators will extract footage of CCTV mounted at the bank, ATM, and other adjacent buildings and streets. The surveillance video at the bank will help the investigating team compare witnesses’ statements about the incident and culprit and what was recorded. Additionally, it will help identify whether the suspect was responding to any signal to take action. On the other hand, CCTV footages at the neighboring buildings identify whether the suspect was accompanied by someone else who might have helped him escape from the scene.
Various steps will follow in the subsequent days or weeks after the preliminary investigations to help establish the suspect’s identity. The first step will involve analyzing the witnesses’ description of the suspect’s physical appearance and sketching his picture. The extracted surveillance footage will then be reviewed to confirm what was described by the witnesses. The fingerprints collected at the crime scene will then be analyzed to help establish the DNA of the actual culprit of the back robbery because different people may have similar physical appearances.