Murder at PortoBeach Office Number 2

1. Murder at PortoBeach Office Number 2 Members: Samantha McLatchie; Sarah McGowan; Jason Blackmarr; Hannah Sorensen; Samantha Johnson; Arron Holmes; Joey Buckland; Eddie Philo; Vajiha Ali and Adnan Khan.

2. Office 2 Report • The aim of this report is to summarize the main work of this office in its investigation of the recent spate of drug related murders in Porto Beach.

3. Investigation Week One – Gathering Intelligence • Introductions were completed by all by the end of the first (except for latecomers, Eddie Philo, Joey Buckland and Adnan Khan). • Case Studies were also completed in time and included cases of serial murders, domestic killings and drug/gang-related killings. • The Senior Investigation Officer was Samantha McLatchie.

4. Key Findings The key skills exercised in week one were: • Communicative Skills • Research Skills • Analytical Skills The murder victims were found to have these characteristics: • Male • 20-50 • Were known to the murderer • Related to drug dealing

5. Investigation Week Two – The Investigation Team • Senior Investigating Officer: Samantha McLatchie  • Public Information Officer: Sarah McGowan • Public Information Coordinator: Jason Blackmarr • Public Information Researcher: Hannah Sorensen • Evidence Disclosure: Samantha Johnson • Statistical Analyst: Arron Holmes • Geographic Information Analyst: Vajiha Ali and Adnan Khan

6. Key Findings The statistical analysis of data found: • The murder rates in Porto Beach were higher than those of Scotland, England and Wales but lower than the USA. • The murder rates in Porto Beach are not constant and vary from one month to the next. How the team responded to budget cuts and a new murder: • We requested additional funds to combat the drugs related violence at its core. • The news of the new murder alerted us and reiterated the need for extra protection in community • The statistical data also emphasised this • Although the public were unhappy due to the murders and high crime rate, we felt than being honest with them about the issues the community faced and also asking for their support would help us to reduce crime and secure funding to make Portobeach a safer place.

7. Investigation Week Three – Community Links US: • Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.  http://www.dfaf.org/ • U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.htm Scotland: • Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the link is http://www.sdea.police.uk/mission.htm • Crew 2000 www.crew2000.co.uk England: • Drug Action Teams (DATS) http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/dat/directory/index.html • Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/regions00.htm

8. Key Findings The key findings this week: • There are organisations which help individuals involved in drug related crime to change their lifestyle • In addition there are organisations to help addicts recover and organisations to help address the communities concerns relating to drug related crime • There are organisations in England, Scotland and the USA

9. Investigation Week Four – Press Release • The Press Release provided the public with information on the progress of the investigation. It highlighted the statistics of the crimes in various areas and also explained that the suspects were drug related. Furthermore, the police asked the public to provide any information which would assist the government in their investigations and reassured them that the situation in Porto Beach would be improved

10. Key Findings The key findings this week: • We had to use all our information from previous tasks to provide the community with comprehensive information about the investigation without causing any fear to further ignite vigilantism • To do this we highlighted the statistics which showed that although the murder rates were high they were not as high as some other countries i.e. USA • We explained that we were working with various community links such as drugs action teams and a persistent offenders project to target those often involved with crime due to their drug misuse and to reduce drug related criminal activity • We also wanted to reassure the public that they were safe if they were not involved in drug related criminal activity and asked for their cooperation with the investigation as their information could be invaluable to us.

11. Senior Investigating Officer: Samantha McLatchie  My contributions have included: • Preparing weekly reports to send to the Police Chief. • Informing the team of feedback from the previous weeks task • Contributing consistently to all tasks • Finding the majority of the community links in our investigation • Trying to engage the team in discussions • Suggesting our victim typology • The biggest challenge I faced was frustration at lack of participation from certain officers • This project has improved my team work and research skills as well as improving my confidence in my leadership abilities.

12. Public Information Officer: Sarah McGowan • List the main contributions you have made • Make a comment on the biggest challenge you faced • Make a comment on the skills you have acquired that would be useful in the real world and in future employment

13. Public Information Coordinator: Jason Blackmarr • List the main contributions you have made • Make a comment on the biggest challenge you faced • Make a comment on the skills you have acquired that would be useful in the real world and in future employment

14. Public Information Researcher: Hannah Sorensen • List the main contributions you have made • Make a comment on the biggest challenge you faced • Make a comment on the skills you have acquired that would be useful in the real world and in future employment

15. Evidence Disclosure: Samantha Johnson • I made the pages for the most part although I did fall behind some and someone stepped up and did it for me. I also helped with this PowerPoint. • One of the biggest challenges I faced was finding the time to help with this investigation. • Some of the skills that I acquired that will help me in the future is dealing and working with people all over the world.

16. Statistical Analyst: Arron Holmes • List the main contributions you have made • Make a comment on the biggest challenge you faced • Make a comment on the skills you have acquired that would be useful in the real world and in future employment

17. Geographic Information Analyst: Vajiha Ali • I have updated the group on the differing murder rates and also helped find the relevant information required for the investigation • My biggest challenge to date was the Press Release as it was important that we provided the public with accurate information but also reassured them that the police are doing everything they can to find the murderer. • I have improved my research and analytical skills. Furthermore, I am better at working in a team to achieve the same goal. I often helped the team by guiding them when they were unsure what to do by initiating the group task

18. Geographic Information Analyst:  Adnan Khan • List the main contributions you have made • Make a comment on the biggest challenge you faced • Make a comment on the skills you have acquired that would be useful in the real world and in future employment

19. Joey Buckland • I found relevant cases studies and information for the group. This information along with the other group members findings help us build up a better picture of what was going on and how to tackle the problem. • The biggest problem I faced when tackling this project was trying to engage myself in it. I found it extremely confusing and difficult at times due to my lack of IT skills and imagination. Unfortunately this may have lead to some of my contributions being slightly vague or inaccurate. • I would say that I have managed to improve my IT skills as a result of this project, I can now more or less use the website and understand what I am being asked to do. Additionally I have learned how to work as a group more effectively, with communication being key to having any chance of success.

20. Eddie Philo • For our investigation I found relevant case studies, that, along with the other information gathered by the rest of the group allowed us to see how problems with drugs had been dealt with and these collective ideas allowed us to act accordingly. I also met deadlines for the tasks apart from the first task as I was late gaining access to PBworks as I mistyped my email address. • The biggest problem I faced during this project was navigating the Pbworks website. It was often confusing and hard to find the relevant pages, a lack of clear instructions also contributed to making this project more confusing than it needed to be. My generally poor ICT skills did not make things much easier. • Over the course of this project my ICT skills have improved slightly as I got used to navigating the site and editing the various pages to add my work. My overall research skills have also been improved as we had to research similar crimes in order to better understand the task we faced.