One of the most fundamental questions one could ask in regards to the police is ‘what ways do the police collect evidence?’ If there were really only a few different ways for the police to gather evidence, then everyone would be cleared of any wrongdoing and this would not be good for catching offenders. The problem is that there are hundreds of different circumstances that could potentially make it necessary for the police to gather evidence. This evidence can range from a simple lifting of fingerprints to extensive DNA profiling.
There are many different methods that the police use to gather this evidence. Some of these methods are intrusive; for example, if a suspect is detained at a crime scene or suspected of committing a crime, the police have the right to take some samples of DNA from that suspect in order to perform a DNA test. This is a legally valid method and is used by police forces throughout the United Kingdom. Other methods are less intrusive, for example, the method of collecting information from a computer. For securing important evidence, police will use a Security Seal such as those at Acme Seals
Of course, sometimes the police do not have the right evidence in order to convict someone of a crime. Sometimes they cannot necessarily get a conviction because they lack the proper evidence. In these circumstances, they may have to use methods such as surveillance in order to find the evidence they need. The methods used by the police to gain intelligence on crime are called ‘interrogation techniques’. This simply means that they carefully record all the conversations that take place between suspects and alleged criminals, in order to try and discover what they are planning.
