police obliged to inform you of the outcome of the case?

[tali122]

if you're involved in a criminal case as the victim are the police obliged to inform you of the outcome of the case? Also a friend had stuff stolen from his car and there are cctv images , my friend suspects it could be someone they know and told the police of this - but will the police show the cctv to my friend or just treat as another crime stat ?- again how much are the police obliged tom inform you -who is the onus upon

[Law Man1856]

Hi tali,

The Police investigation will follow a proven path gathering evidence by questioning and following the sequence of events.

Criminal cases have victims and offenders and the police need to be sure of who did what to who, this process can be very long and the officers have strict guidelines on the disclosure of information and keeping the victims informed of the stage of the investigation.

Once the investigation is concluded the police will apply to the CPS for a charging decision. If the CPS decide that they have a reasonable chance of conviction then the police will charge the offenders and progress to court.

If the offender admits the offence then they maybe cautioned, warned or charged depending on their previous criminal history, thier age and the nature of the offence.

The onus on the OIC ( Officer in the case ) to keep the victim informed of the process.

Once it goes to court the Witness Care team ( CPS and Police ) will liase with the victim and support court attendance and help with any problems or special needs required by witnesses.

The Witness Care officer will maintain contact throughout the case and inform the witnesses of the outcome.

If the offender was cautioned etc the OIC should inform the victim of the outcome.

The Police will be very careful in confirming/ releasing the identity of offenders if know to the victim in case this sparkes conflict or revenge.

Each case differs and the merit of the evidence and the presentation of it will effect the resultant outcome.

All evidence is viewed but to show CCTV coverage would only be considered if identification of the offender was in question.

If you need to find out a result from court, the court staff are usually very helpful if witness care have not informed you of the result.

[tali122]

thanks lawman for detailed answer, really only needed to know the outcome of a non serious case, because in 3 occasions once ive provided evidence either a statement or in court the police have made no contact afterwards to tell me the outcome

[seatrout]

It is recognised that the victims of crime get little consideration within the court process and efforts have been made to remedy this.

You should expect the Police or CPS to contact you with the outcome of any investigation. This does not mean that the Police will show your friend CCTV footage or indeed any other evidence pertinent to the investigation.

You are entitled to be told what decision has been made and how that decision has been arrived at - you would not normally be shown evidence in a case unless there was a very specific reason to do so