Principles of Investigative Documentation: Creating a Uniform Style for Generating Reports and Packaging Information

Principles of Investigative Documentation discusses the process of documenting an investigation from start to finish. The first chapter discusses the five primary principles of investigative documentation: taking comprehensive notes; documenting every effort to contact witnesses and all surveillance; preparing reports whenever there is any possibility of needing to testify; taking verbatim statements from hostile witnesses and declarations from friendly witnesses; and providing all case documents to the client or maintaining a document retention plan.
The second chapter details the numerous misconceptions pertaining to investigative documentation, and it sets the stage for the remaining chapters on note-taking, running resumes, reports, statements, and documentation retention. Each chapter is broken down into multiple sections that approximate the methods used to complete that particular documentary endeavor. By following the principles outlined in this book, investigators will see the quality of their investigations improve markedly and ultimately be more successful.