E. Admisión Regular
10. Indicaciones y recomendaciones para el examen
4.2.4.1 Activity description
As they arrive at the scene, responding Officers notify the Controller (who updates the incident log); the Officers may be confronted by an ongoing emergency, or they may find that the immediate threat from the incident has stopped. Either way, in order to achieve the goals of restoring order, preserving life and property and the detection of offences and offenders (HM Government, 2002), their response to the incident is concerned with two interrelated high-level tasks: i) controlling and resolving the situation and ii) performing an initial investigation of the events surrounding it.
Where more than one Officer is deployed to an incident, they may decide to separate and divide tasks between them (e.g. conducting searches, separating belligerent parties, speaking to witnesses), using their radios in point to point mode (i.e. direct one to one) to coordinate their activities without taking up airtime on the talk group.
Police Officers are issued with a pocket notebook; this provides somewhere to record information when dealing with incidents, such as witness accounts, details of evidence and the Officer’s narrative description of events. Whilst the pocket notebook is principally for an Officer’s own use, the information recorded here will form the basis of subsequent investigatory paperwork. It may also be referred to by the Officer when giving evidence in court (potentially years later) and therefore may be examined by lawyers or court officials. Consequently, there are strict rules governing when and how the notebook is used, in order to support the reliability and accuracy of entries.
Officer enquiries are supported by the Controller, who is able to verify details through police databases (e.g. vehicle registrations, names, addresses), check Officer welfare, allocate additional units, contact other services, record updates in the IMS and circulate information to other Officers (e.g. descriptions of suspects).
4.2.4.2 Interpretation
Responding to emergency incidents is complicated by the fact that many of the incident details may well be inaccurate, including the caller’s account of events, the names or descriptions of parties involved and very often the nature of the incident itself (i.e. the frame selected by the Call Handler during the initial call). For example, in Figure 4.20, the situation Officers encounter at the scene is at variance to the summary they have been given, causing them to question the sensemaking framework for the incident. This in turn cues activity from the Controllers and Call Handler, who communicate with each other via the IMS.
Figure 4.20: The situation on the ground causes Officers to question the incident frame [Incident: break-in in progress; Source: IMS log (WMP, July 2004); Corroboration: Control Room
observations and SME interviews (WMP July-September 2009), participant observation (Warwickshire Police 2007-2010)]
The Pocket notebook and digital radio appear to function as cognitive artefacts that support Officers in making sense of the incidents they encounter. Over the course of the participant-observation period of this research, it gradually became apparent that many Officers had modified their use of the notebook, employing the back pages to make unstructured notes in a similar fashion to the Call Handler’s notepad described earlier. As details of an incident become known during an Officer’s enquiries they are often recorded in the back of the notebook; these details are used to cue further information gathering from witnesses, as well as the Officer’s actions, such as searching the area and questioning individuals that match the offender’s description.
With support from the Controller, Officers often use their notebooks to their advantage whilst making sense at the scene of an incident. Figure 4.21 summarises the sensemaking process involved in verifying the identity of an individual. As with the Call Handler’s notepad described earlier, the back of the pocket notebook also functions as a private cognitive artefact that supports frame seeking, by capturing key information divulged when questioning an individual. The person’s details
Multiple units respond to reports of a break-in in progress at night; Officers are on the scene within 3 minutes, however on their arrival, the property and surrounding houses appear to be secure and undisturbed, casting doubt on the nature of the incident. The Controller switches the incident log back to the Call Hander (in a different Control Room) to double check the address.
12:46 Controller A: “CAN YOU CONFIRM x RD OR x ST”
13:00 Call Handler: “STANDBY”
13:23 Call Handler: “I HAVE LISTEND TO TAPE AGAIN IT IS x STREET”
13:28 Call Handler: “NOT ROAD - MY APOLOGIES”
13:28 Controller A: [Receives no reply from caller’s mobile phone.] 14:10 Controller B: [Updates caller details to x Street]
14:16 Controller A: [Updates incident location to x Street]
15:20 Controller B: [Notes that the house numbers in x Street only go up to 12 - the caller had reported living at number 15]
15:50 Controller B: [Performs searches for the caller on the voters database] 17:20 Call Handler: “I HAVE LISTEND TO ALL THE TAPE AND WHEN I CONFIRM” 17:34 Call Handler: “THE NUMBER OF THE ADDRESS CALLER STATES x ROAD” 17:44 Call Handler: “I REPEATED IT TO HIM AND HE SAID YES x ROAD” 17:54 Call Handler: “AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TAPE HE STATES x” 18:06 Call Handler: “STREET”
21:50 Controller B: [Notes that Officers have checked the front and rear of both 12 x St and 12 x Rd and spoken to resident at 12 x St – all in order.] 24:50 Controller B: [All units are leaving the scene. The log is closed, having been
(i.e. name, date of birth, home address) are recorded in the back of the notebook and checked on Police databases (via the Controller over the radio). If these checks are negative, this cues the Officer to question the frame and potentially provides an alternative one (e.g. this person is engaging in deception, possibly to conceal an offense), prompting further enquiries with the individual. The Officer may ask the individual to repeat their details and provide further information, such as other persons living at an address (who would be listed on the electoral register). The pocket notebook supports this reframing of the incident, providing a record of the earlier responses from the suspect and revealing any inconsistencies. By repeating this process of information gathering and database checks, the individual’s deception becomes apparent and Officers will then take appropriate action. At the same time, the Officer and Controller are also able to take steps to establish the individual’s true identity. Individuals trying to hide their identity must rapidly improvise fictitious details in order to answer simple questions about themselves. Typically3 , this means they tend to change their
details only slightly (e.g. different spelling of surname, different year of birth, or house number). Consequently, their actual personal details are frequently listed in search results as a possible match. For persons known to the police, PNC will list physical characteristics and distinguishing features, such as scars and tattoos, which the Officer can then check to confirm their identity.
In a similar fashion, the Pocket notebook and radio network also support collaboration between Officers at the scene who have split up to conduct enquiries separately. The use of the radio as a private shared cognitive artefact (point to point) allows Officers to engage in a similar iterative sensemaking process, comparing accounts (based on their notes) and identifying inconsistencies. In addition to reducing the volume of radio traffic on the talk group, this enables the Officers to have the space to engage in frame seeking, and testing/validation without having to physically meet or publicise their early hypotheses on the radio network and in the incident log. Once they have identified the correct frame, the Officers are able to take immediate action (e.g. making an arrest) without having to reconvene. Combined with the use of radio earpieces, this can enable them to catch suspects unaware and reduce the risk of injuries to Officers.