How To

How To Plan an Investigation

Attorney John Thompson provides a primer to help non-security personnel conduct effective investigations

By John Thompson

Obtain relevant documents. In many investigations, there is a paper trail that provides important information for the investigation. The documents the investigator reviews will answer many questions, raise many other important questions that the investigator will want to ask, identify individuals that the investigator will want to interview, and so on. Documents that the investigator should consider obtaining include: personnel files, telephone records, expense account records, computerized personnel information, appointment calendars, time cards, building entrance/exit records, computer/word processing disks and hard drive, e-mail records and voice mail records.

Special investigative techniques. With respect to many investigations, gathering relevant documents and interviewing relevant individuals will be the extent of the investigation conducted. Sequentially, the investigator should review the relevant documents obtained from the organization and then plan for the interview process. Therefore, the remainder of this section discusses planning for the interview process. However, there are certain times when special investigative techniques beyond mere interviews are appropriate. These are almost always investigative techniques that have a high legal risk and never should be discussed or implemented without legal counsel. In fact, many of these techniques should require high-level approval before they may be utilized, including the following: internal audit, physical investigation (fingerprint, handwriting, voice analysis), physical surveillance, polygraphs, searches of organization or private property, and electronic monitoring or surveillance.

Prepare opening and closing comments. For each interview, the investigator will want to have a set of opening comments and instructions. Similarly, the investigator will want to have a set of closing comments and instructions. This is the part of the interview that is “canned” and not really dependent upon what any particular individual says. Therefore, there is no excuse for being unprepared or “missing” a particular point. For example, I once had a witness claim that she was being retaliated against after an interview. When asked why she did not immediately report this, her answer was that she did not know that she should and did not know to whom to report it. If true, the investigator was at fault for not providing this information to her as part of the “canned” opening and closing comments.

Prepare a set of written questions. This has several advantages. First, it will require the investigator to think carefully in advance about what information is needed, how best to elicit information from each individual and how to protect the confidentiality of parties. Second, it will permit the investigator to organize the interview and develop a logical sequence for questions. Third, it enables the investigator to ask precisely the same questions of multiple individuals and ensures that the investigator will not forget to ask certain questions. The investigator must be careful, however, not to be so tied to an outline that he or she fails to ask necessary follow-up questions, or explore something identified by a witness that was not in the outline.

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