Cold Case Investigation in Educational Settings in Germany

ABSTRACT

Since 2014, students of the Police Academy of Lower Saxony have processed the analysis of cold cases in cooperation with the responsible police departments and the district attorney. This study summarizes the early experiences of the training program and analyzes the benefits for both students and for the police and public prosecutors. The project's aim is to find supporting evidence through the implementation of a structured reconstruction of a crime, constructing data on victimology and possible offender's motives, and finally, to create a lead file controlling process on the complete cold case.

All in all, students controlled 693 leads on 7 cases. 527 leads were finished or dead ends, but 166 had to be re-evaluated. Of those, 103 leads remained open while 23 leads were worthy of further investigative effort. Forensic re-analysis was recommended in 14 leads. Twelve times, the students came upon previously undetected cross-reportings of persons within a case or between different cases.

Initial experiences with the program show that: (1) from the law enforcement authorities' view, the students' objective analysis does not reach the status of evidence but resulted in new leads in all cases that were worthy of investigation by professional detectives; and (2) the students report that they gained insight into how homicide investigations are organized and how to watch for factors that influence the solvability of homicides in a negative way. Summarizing, we can state that the program is a win-win for all involved. The overall aim to generate new starting points for an investigation was reached in all cases.

KEYWORDS:

• cold case
• investigation
• homicide
• crime scene
• best practice model

Acknowledgments

We thank the ‘Landeskriminalamt Niedersachsen’ for supporting us with their knowledge and manpower during the trainings.