Case Management Policy for University Police Department

Purpose

It shall be the policy of the St. Mary’s University Police Department to establish and maintain an effective and efficient system of case management activities.

Procedure

• Case Numbers: Report numbers will be generated automatically by the ARMS system.
  • If there is a dispatcher on duty, make sure to give all relevant information to dispatch while on scene as this will allow for population of most information when you begin your report.
  • If no dispatcher is on duty, the case number will only be obtained when the reporting officer logs on to ARMS. DO NOT ask another officer to provide case numbers as this may create case numbers issued in error.
• Incident, Offense, Police Service and Motor Vehicle Accident Reports: Offense reports will be submitted whenever:
  • A citizen reports a crime
  • An officer reports a crime, conducts an investigation into criminal activity or makes an arrest.
  • Assisting an outside agency, when the officer has direct involvement in the criminal investigation, goes hands on with a suspect or takes other police action other than acting as a cover officer.
• Incident reports shall be submitted at the officer’s discretion: An officer responds to non-criminal calls for service, a medical assistance call (including “patient refusals”), and all other officer initiated patrol activities (i.e. University rules and regulations, safety hazards, suspicious persons or disturbances when unable to locate or gone on arrival.
• Officers will not have discretion and a case report will be generated regarding the following violations of State Law:
  • Alcohol offenses
  • Drugs/paraphernalia offenses
  • Weapons offenses
• Officer responsibility in case management:
  • Classify report properly, incident or offense.
  • Supplement vs. Follow-up
    • Supplement is a document created by an officer who assist the reporting officer with the initial investigation.
    • Follow-up is an action post initial report.
  • Prepare a complete report: All relevant tabs in ARMS should be as complete as possible.
    • Status
    • Proper location
    • Copies to
    • Property/ evidence
    • Involved parties, etc…
  • Officers will pull a case jacket from the front of the forms file cabinet located in the patrol room.
  • The jacket will contain all information gathered during the investigative process, such as:
    • Copy of the report
    • Supplements
    • Original statements
    • Copies of photographs
    • Original citations-County or StMU
    • All documents will be scanned into ARMS and added to the other media section in the “Items in Report” section along with downloading photographs and videos.
    • Moving violation citations will be placed outside the dispatch door in the black file folder on top of the file cabinet.
    • Completed report jackets will be placed in sergeant’s boxes mounted on the wall outside of the sergeant’s office.
• Sergeants responsibility in case management
  • Sergeants will verify all electronic entries related to officer’s case reports are scanned in and attached to the report.
  • Sergeants will verify all electronic entries such as documents, citations and statements are copied and are present in the case jackets.
  • Sergeants will review reports for Clery reportable crimes and if identified as such will prepare a cover sheet and enter the report into the current years Clery binder.
• Captains responsibility in case management
  • Captain will, from time to time, perform random checks of case jackets to verify proper case management.
• Documentation of building fire alarms: Besides silencing the alarm, responsibilities include:
  • Identify the source/reason for alarm;
  • Assist in evacuation process
  • Meet with the DOD to determine that the building has been completely evacuated prior to turning off alarm.
  • Notify the necessary resources, if applicable for malfunctions (physical plant, University officials, etc..)
  • Get the alarm back in service; and
  • Document the alarm as required by Clery Fire Reporting Regulations. Remember Clery requires reporting only of uncontrolled open flames in an area not designed for open flames. However, alarms activated by steam, microwave popcorn, hair straighteners, etc. do not qualify as reportable by Clery definitions, unless it is a microwave popcorn or other microwave event where damage has incurred to the microwave by a flame present in the unit, then it becomes a reportable event and MUST be documented.
• Police service reports: A service card and CAD entry are sufficient in most cases, to document:
  • Impounds
  • Jumpstarts
  • Vehicle unlocks
  • Medical refusals for ill persons
• Motor vehicle accidents
  • An ST-3 Form will be completed whenever a motor vehicle accident occurs on Rattler Drive and its intersections.
  • An incident report will be taken on all other property owned, controlled or operated by St Mary’s.
  • Photos are NOT required unless the vehicle is involved in a major accident or University owned.
• Procedure for report submission and criminal investigation assignments: Assignment of Cases:
  • Patrol officers take a report and submit the report to their respective sergeant for review. The patrol sergeant approves or kicks-back the report for corrections.
  • Patrol sergeant uses the below matrix to determine whether the case should be assigned to the detective sergeant for a follow-up investigation.
  • Class Cs are investigated by the patrol shift which took the original report. Assignment of the investigative officer is the responsibility of the shift sergeant. If it appears as though the case does not appear to be solvable, the information which leads the sergeant and patrol officer to that determination needs to be contained within the body of the report.
  • The patrol shift sergeant shall send the captain and the detective sergeant an email on a weekly basis with the progress of the Class C cases assigned to their shift.
• Criminal Investigations follow-up: all cases identified as:
  • Felony
    • In cases where an arrest was made by patrol- a review will be conducted to make sure all the needs of the case are completed
    • In cases where a suspect is still pending arrest, a proper investigation will be conducted.
  • Misdemeanor
    • Class A
    • Class B
  • Specific cases which warrant a follow-up by the detective sergeant are:
    • All sex related crimes. (Purpose is to comply with the Clery Act and Title IX.)
    • Theft (Clery)
    • Class B misdemeanors above $3000 loss amount or higher
    • All thefts of University property-regardless of dollar amount
    • All harassment cases (Pending Clery Act amendment)
    • Assaults (excluding Class C misdemeanor simple assaults, disorderly conduct-mutual fighting) (Clery)