Tailing a Suspect

Sometimes during an investigation, a detective has to tail, or follow, a suspect. The suspect may make contact with other suspects or might lead the detective to more evidence. Try the following activity at school or another safe location to test your ability to tail a person.

Materials

- Notebook
- Pen or pencil
- Watch
- Several helpers


Procedure
1. Gather several helpers together. Inform them that at some point during the next week, you are going to tail one of them as part of an experiment. (Telling them that you are going to tail them makes your task more difficult but will avoid their embarrassment.)
CAUTION: Tail the person at schol or in another safe location, such as a party. Never wander around alone.
2. Choose a day and select one person to follow for one hour. Use your notebook to record notes of his or her activities and any people the person encounters. Record the time for all notes you make.
3. When you have finished tailing the person, review your notes. Are there any activities that surprised you? Could you tell exactly what happened during each encounter with other people? Did the person figure out that you were tailing him or her?

More Fun Stuff to Do

Detectives seldom follow a suspect by themselves. They usually work in teams to prevent the suspect from getting suspicious. Often a second, third or even a fourth detective will pick up the trail where the previous detective leaves off. Try using a team to trail one of your helpers.

Explanation

It is difficult to tail a person without being noticed. If a suspect sees the same person, especially a stranger, over and over again, the suspect’s brain is alerted that something out of the ordinary has happened. He or she will become more cautious and will try to see whether someone is indeed tailing him or her. This is why the police use teams to follow suspects. One person will follow the suspect for a short time, then a second, third, or eve a fourth detective will pick up the trail. The suspect does not see the same person, so the suspect’s brain is not lerted that something unusual is happening.

Tailin a suspect is a form of surveillance. The term surveillance comes from the French word surveiller, which measn “to watch over.” Police practice surveillance for many reasons. They may watch a suspect’s home or place of work in order to gain information or even to catch the suspect. This is sometimes called a stakeout. They may trail a suspect to get other information, such as a suspect’s habits, daily routine, personal contacts, and place of work, home address, or type of information used.

The detective can be use the information gathered from observing a suspect to form a hypothesis or theory about the suspect, just as a scientist uses information to form a hyphotesis about an experiment. For example, if a suspect meets with the same person ath the same time every day and is seen passing slips of paper to that person, then the detective might make the hypothesis that the suspect is involve in a gambling operation and that the slips ofpaper are betting slips. The detective will then continue to investigate to determine whether that hypothesis is correct, in the same way that a scientist will test a hypothesis through experimentation.

Interviewing Witnesses

During an investigation, much of a detective’s time is spent interviewing witnesses and questioning suspects. If everyone tells the same story, a detective can feel confident that he or she has learned the truth about a crime. But often people lie, or they believe they are telling the truth but are mistaken. Try the following activity to see how good you are at interviewing witnesses.

Materials

- Copy of the picture on crime scene
- Watch or clock
- Pen or pencil
- Notebook
- Several helpers

Procedure

1. Have all of your helpers but one leave the room.
2. Give a copy of the picture on crime scene to the helper.
3. Using the watch or clock, give your helper 1 minute to look at the picture, than take the picture away.
4. Ask your helper what he or she remembers about the picture. Ask questions like “How many people were in the picture?” or ”Was there anything unusual that you noticed?” Record the answers in your notebook.
5. Repeat the procedure with each of the remaining helpers, making sure that the helpers do not hear each other’s answer to your questions.
6. Compare the comments that the helpers made. How many details were mentioned? Did some statements conflict with other statements?

More Fun Stuff to Do

Stage a pretend crime during a party or family gathering, and see wether any of the guests can figure out who did it. You could have someone “steal” some books off a shelf or remove a candlestick. At some point after the crime, choose several guests as witnesses and question each in a separated interview. How did their observations compare? Were their observations good enough for them to figure out who took the books?

Explanation

When interviewing witnesses to a crime, there are several questions that detectives ask to get a description of and information about the suspect. Some typical questions include: What is the sex, race, and approximate age of the suspect? What is his or her height, weight, color of hair and eyes, and complexion? Did you notice any physical scars or marks? Did the suspect wear glasses or have facial hair? What was the voice like? What was the suspect wearing? What did the suspect do?
Interviewers must listen for unexpected information. Often the question will cause the person who is being interviewd to implicate another person, meaning the person will reveal, by accident or on purpose, that someone else was involved in the crime.

Interviewers should remain impartial when they interview witnesses. This means they should not reveal their own opinions or feelings during the interview. Also must be careful not to lead a witness to say something that is not true.

Interviewing witnesses and other methods of crime detection are similar to scientific investigation in general. Scientist brings their own thougts and opinions to their experiments. Often they want an experiment to turn out a particular way, so it is difficult for them to remain impartial. This explains why two scientists, seeing the same information, can come to two opposite conclusions. Each bends the information to support his or her own views. Whether investigating crimes orperforming experiments, scientists must always keep an open mind and be ready for unexpected data.