The concept of effectiveness and quality of a preliminary investigation

There were and there still are many drawbacks connected, above all, with effectiveness and quality of crime investigation in the work of preliminary investigation bodies. A prerequisite for effective preliminary investigation is, firstly, legality of actions of interrogating officers and investigators when their actions are based on complete and thorough examination of all circumstances of the criminal case, analysis and evaluation of checked evidence in the course of making procedural decisions. The second prerequisite is a legal opportunity for interrogating officers and investigators to resolve real contradictions between the interests to achieve the aims of criminal procedure and the necessity to guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens involved in this process. The third prerequisite is the opportunity to react to the majority of causes for instituting criminal proceedings and in the result to satisfy the sense of justice. Preliminary investigation should be economical in terms of any means and expenditures. It's necessary for both interrogating officers and investigators to organize the work in such an optimal way as to achieve qualitative results with the least manpower and timing budget. An essential condition of effective criminal procedure is the possibility to use various sources of information. Criminal procedure cannot be effective if estimated figures and accounting ratio established by the bodies involved in the procedure enable to evaluate the activity of their agencies positively even in such cases where the aim of criminal procedure has not been attained. Therefore, effectiveness of the preliminary investigation implies the level of attainment of aims and tasks at the stage of a preliminary investigation in the result of legal, reliable, economical, optimal and competent organizational and procedural actions of empowered officials. Legal requirements to the quality of crime investigation are: legality, comprehensiveness, completeness and objectivity of examination of circumstances, reasonableness and motivation of charges. Each of the above requirements has its legal content but they make investigation qualitative only when taken together. The quality of investigation is connected with a positive final result and with logically completed proceedings; it includes the investigation in full, is inherent in it and is not reduced to the presence of one property or only separate characteristics. Each of the examined concepts-effectiveness and quality of a preliminary investigation - expresses the degree of task solution and the level of aim attainment. It is evident that effectiveness covers, first of all, service expenditures, but quality - the requirements for enquiry and preliminary investigation.

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