Criminal Investigation and Case Management
This domain tests investigative oversight: how you triage cases, assign them, protect evidence integrity, and coordinate with the county prosecutor and the state laboratory. Questions typically present a case file with a defect and ask what a lieutenant should do.
Solvability screening
Not every report becomes an investigation. Standard solvability factors: named suspect, described suspect, described vehicle, identifiable stolen property, physical evidence, an available witness, usable latent prints or DNA, a link to another case, and a victim who can assist. Triage with those factors so investigative hours go where they produce results.
Case file discipline
- Assign a primary and a secondary investigator with a dated investigative plan.
- Never alter an original report; correct by numbered supplement.
- Chain of custody: who handled it, when, seal numbers, storage location, re-seal log.
- Submissions go to the NJ State Police Office of Forensic Sciences; priority requests route through the prosecutor's office.
- Custodial interrogations at a place of detention must be electronically recorded under N.J. Court Rule 3:17 for the covered offenses; unrecorded statements risk suppression.
Coordination
Major crimes are directed by the prosecutor's office. Detectives do not commit county resources on their own authority. Hold weekly case reviews, and treat exculpatory material as a disclosure obligation, not a filing decision.
Worked example
A burglary: a latent print is lifted on day one but not submitted until day nine, and the narrative names a "possible suspect" with no stated basis. The supervisory fix is to document the delay and ask why, set a lab follow-up date, and strike the unsupported identification - not to add a name to make the case look cleared. Clearing statistics are not a case-management goal.
Traps that cost marks
Writing conclusions into supplements; "victim uncooperative" with no documented attempts; logging evidence without a re-seal entry; letting a cold case lapse with no formal status review; assuming a lab submission equals an analysis.