The Team at the heart of the Major Incident Room

Article taken from – The team at the heart of the Major Incident Room – Neighbourhood Alert

When a murder investigation is launched, you may be surprised to hear working alongside our team of detectives are a team of highly skilled and specialist trained staff who play a key part in supporting the Senior Investigating Officer.

We’ve given insights into our Detectives, the Senior Investigating Officers, Family Liaising Officers and of course, our detectives, but the Major Incident Room is equipped with another 30 members of staff including the Office Managers, Reader/Receivers, Indexers, Typists and Exhibits/Disclosure Officers who support detectives throughout the course of every investigation whether they are investigating a murder, child sexual exploitation, bank robberies, shootings, and much more.

After a 999 call is made to our Force Control Room and the officers have been deployed to the scene to understand the circumstances surrounding the incident, the Senior Investigating Officer will declare a murder investigation has been launched and the Major Incident Room staff will spring into action alongside detectives to solve the murder.

The Senior Investigating Officer will call a Major Incident Room briefing with the Office Manager, Reader/Receivers, Indexers, Typists, Exhibits/Disclosure Officers alongside the detectives and Family Liaison Officers in the case and set the initial parameters and lines of enquiry for the investigation.

Let’s dive into each of the roles and how they all come together as puzzle pieces to ultimately find the answers for victims and loved ones. 

The Receiver

Based on the parameters set by the lead detective, the Receiver plays a very important role by reading any statements and documents. Following the evidence, they will request high priority actions so the detectives can get to work.

The Indexer

With facts of the case so far, the team will start to build the case on the Major Incident Room database called ‘Holmes’. Working closely with the Detective Sergeants in the team, the Indexer will begin to create the actions for each of the officers to carry out. As the case progresses, the system pretty much becomes like their very own investigative google.

The team member responsible for indexing the investigation will then join all the dots on the system, building up what could resemble a huge spiders web around each piece of information, evidence and person.

The Reader

Poised and ready, the Reader sits and reads through every single document submitted, including those that have been transcribed, going through everything with a fine-tooth comb to make sure no stone has been left unturned based on the parameters that have been set by the Senior Investigating Officer.

In some cases, the staff can read thousands of documents depending on the scale of the investigation to help the team get one step closer to where they need to be, ultimately finding the answers for the victim and their family.

As the detectives begin to complete lines of enquiry it provides them with a hub of information including details surrounding the victim and the suspect, any other people involved, who they are, what enquiries have been carried out and what is left to do, whether that be CCTV, house to house or crime scene investigation.

The Typists

Not forgetting the initial 999 calls, witness statements, interviews, bodyworn footage from officers, and voicemails, working quickly, our experienced team of typists, sometimes dealing with hours and hours’ worth of interview tapes and audio files, will transcribe each of these, often with short deadlines to ensure the team have what they need for the next stage of the investigation.

Working together as a tight knit team they will repeat this process multiple times to make sure every piece of the investigation is explored.

The Exhibits / Disclosure Officers

Our Exhibits/Disclosure Officers prepare all the information that will form part of the case file for court, including registering and cataloguing any exhibits – this can be anything from a mobile phone or piece of clothing right through to pieces of furniture and can sometimes encompass thousands of pieces of material. 

As an integral part of the investigation team, when a death has occurred and a postmortem need to take place, the exhibits officer will attend to ensure they are able to understand the findings of the examination. They will also submit evidence for forensic analysis.

Forming a bridge between the detectives conducting the enquiries alongside the Major Incident Room Staff our Disclosure Officers based in Major Crime will also look scour through everything that comes into the Major Incident Room in great detail to understand what evidence will be relied upon when the case gets to court.

They assist in building the case whilst making sure they remain impartial ensuring both the prosecution and defence all receive the relevant evidence that could form part of the court case and potentially the trial.

The Office Manager

Whilst all of this is going on making sure everything is going to plan, the Office Manager will be overseeing every single part of this highly skilled team to ensure they, alongside the detectives and Senior Investigating Officer, have considered everything they need to help secure a conviction at court.