Article title Interaction of Investigative and Operational Officers in the Course of Covert Investigative (Detective) Actions
Authors
Name of magazine Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (Ukrainian version)
Issue 8/2018
Сторінки [107-122]
DOI 10.33498/louu-2018-08-107
Annotation

In the criminal proceedings with regard to serious and especially serious crimes, covert investigative (detective) actions (hereinafter – CIDA) play a crucial part of the efficient means of proving in the criminal procedure through which more than 85 % of such crimes are investigated and solved. A successful outcome of CIDA is only possible subject to the efficient cooperation of investigative and operational officers of the authorized units of competent law enforcement agencies. However, in the law application activities, the interaction of these subjects of the criminal process gives rise to a range of challenging issues making a study of their interaction relevant today. The purpose of this study is to identify the challenging legal and organizational issues inherent in the interaction of investigative and operational officers of the authorized operational units during CIDA, and to substantiate the proposals aimed at finding a solution thereof. The article demonstrates that interaction of an investigative and an operational officer of the authorized operational units should be understood as a necessary activity area of the subjects characterized by administrative independence, which is underlain by law and departmental regulations and coordinated by intermediate objectives, and which is directed by an investigator or a prosecutor by comprehensively combining and efficiently exercising the powers, methods and forms possessed by each of them. The author proves that an investigator’s direct involvement in CIDA is an efficient form of interaction of investigative and operational officers of the authorized units of competent law enforcement agencies. The article offers arguments to prove that an investigator’s order on making CIDA should be submitted particularly to the operational unit of law enforcement agencies which directly makes the CIDA concerned. Given the analysis of the CIDA practice and the CIDA results use as proof in the criminal procedure, it is argued that the protocol on the conduct of a relevant CIDA should be made either by an authorized officer of the operational unit or by an investigator who conducted or participated in the conduct of CIDA. The said protocol should comply with the general rules of recording applicable to the criminal proceedings. The author comes to the conclusion that an appropriate interaction of an investigative and an operational officer of the relevant authorized operational units, the latter being the subjects of law enforcement agencies independent of each other in terms of administrative subordination, which is directed by an investigator or a prosecutor by comprehensively combining and efficiently exercising the powers, methods and forms possessed by each of them, is crucial for increasing the efficiency of CIDA and the use of CIDA results as proof in the criminal procedure, at the same time generally contributing to the successful implementation of the tasks of the criminal process.

 

Keywords interaction; investigator; operational unit; covert investigative (detective) actions; results of covert investigative (detective) actions; proof in the criminal procedure
References

Legislation 
1. Instruktsiia z orhanizatsii vzaiemodii orhaniv dosudovoho rozsliduvannia z inshymy orhanamy ta pidrozdilamy Natsionalnoi politsii Ukrainy v zapobihanni kryminalnym pravoporushenniam, yikh vyiavlenni ta rozsliduvanni [Instruction on the organization of interaction of pre-trial investigation bodies with other bodies and units of the National Police of Ukraine in the prevention of criminal offenses, their detection and investigation]: Nakaz Ministerstva Vnutrishnikh sprav Ukrainy [Order of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine] vid 07.07.2017 r. № 575. URL: http://zakon0.rada.gov.ua/laws/ show/z0937-17 (accessed 28.09.2018) (in Ukrainian). 
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