Roles and Responsibilities of Investigation Teams

Depending on the crime, there are many different types of investigation team. For major crimes, in most police forces, there is a major crime unit or investigation team that is designed to work effectively and efficiently on that particular type of crime. In major crime unit, there would be many smaller specialist units that have a particular job to carry out e.g. an underwater search team.

In the case of the Moors Murders, a major incident unit would have been used to investigate the case as it was a particularly large homicide case. The major incident unit would have been designed to be able to deal with large cases like this as they can conduct a thorough investigation without disturbing the routine of the rest of the police force.

The Senior Investigating Officer is the leader of the major incident unit and has the responsibility to manage the investigation from beginning to end. The unit is managed by a detective superintendent and a detective chief inspector, with a staff of 6 detective inspectors, 15 detective sergeants and 45 detective constables. The major incident unit would have many incident rooms located across the local area of the crime, where police officers and other specialists would be that could record information from the local area an put together facts from the case, all whilst being in touch with the community. 

There would have been many members of the investigation team in the case of the moors murders. Forensic Pathologists would have been involved to find out the cause of death for the victims of Brady and Hindley. Forensic Scientists would also be a part of the investigation team as they would have to analyse the evidence found at the crime scene and any evidence found on the bodies of the victims. The police would also have been a major part of the investigation team as they would have responded to the reporting of the crime and secured the scene and also make arrests of suspects. They would also set up a cordon around the scene to preserve any evidence for when the forensic scientists arrive to collect evidence. The senior police officers would interview suspects in the case and also put together a case file that would include important evidence and case notes such as the initial scene assessments and scene descriptions.The defence and prosecution lawyers have a role in the investigation too as they need to gather evidence and witnesses to prove the defendant either guilty or not. When the police have found evidence for the case, lawyers will have to get an alibi for the defendant or witnesses to prove the defendant guilty or not guilty.