Investigative Procedures and Criteria:

Assignment of Offense Reports

• All on-view arrests will be thoroughly investigated and processed regardless of dollar loss.
• Forgery Reports involving checks with a dollar loss of $500 or less will not be assigned to a detective unless the questioned document includes an inkless fingerprint of the person presenting the document.
• An exception will be reports that can be logically linked to other reports already being investigated based on account number, account name, and verifiable suspect information. The Unit Supervisor will make the decision whether an exception is warranted.

Passing Bad Checks

• Check reports have specific criteria that must be met that determine the investigative procedures.
• All checks that are less than $500 will be referred to the Prosecutor's Office for resolution.
• Individual checks written for $500 or more, constituting a felony, will be assigned based on the operating procedures for the unit.  Checks must be $500 individually, not cumulative.

Identity Theft Procedures

• Successful investigation of this crime mandates cooperation from the victim and the merchant/bank involved.
• Criminal charges for an Identity Theft will typically be filed ONLY in conjunction with an accompanying charge, i.e. forgery.
• When a report is made involving the theft of a person's identity, the victim will be responsible for obtaining or arranging for the original documentation to be sent to the Forgery/Fraud Unit.
• Receipts for items released to investigators will be available upon request by merchants or banks for all property turned in for evidence.
• Should an Identity Theft victim, merchant, or bank fail to submit the requested documents in a timely manner, the investigation will be closed.
• Investigations which are closed because the victim, merchant, or bank failed to submit the requested documentation will prevent a new investigation from being initiated at a later date.
• Note:  "A timely manner," as described above, will normally mean 30 business days unless otherwise approved by the unit supervisor.

Counterfeit Checks

• Reports received will be reviewed for links to other investigations and/or suspects familiar to the Forgery/Fraud Unit.
• When a link is established, the report will be assigned to the detective investigating the related case.
• When no link is established, the report will be entered into the database to compile information for future cases.
• When a merchant or bank has obtained the required information, establishing an identifiable suspect and providing active leads to pursue, the case will be assigned in the normal assignment rotation.  (Refer to Forgery Procedures outlined below)
• Absent the essential information necessary to progress a report, an investigation will not commence and a detective will not be assigned to the case until relevant solvability factors exist.  This decision will be made by the unit supervisor and the case will be assigned based on available resources.

Forgery Procedures

• Forgery crimes involving a loss greater than $5,000 will be assigned in the normal rotation for investigation.  (Amount may be aggregated at the unit supervisors discretion).
• Forgery crimes involving a loss greater than $500 and less than $5,000 will be sent to the Latent Unit to identify potential suspect information.  A positive A.F.I.S. hit identifying a specific suspect will be assigned to a detective for investigation.

• Absent sufficient identifying information, i.e., A.F.I.S. hit, fingerprint, photograph, or similar lead, the report will not be assigned to a detective for investigation until available resources permit such assignment.

• Forgery crimes with a loss below $500 dollars without an on-view arrest, photograph of suspect, inkless fingerprint, or a link established to other investigations will not be assigned to a detective until reviewed by the unit supervisor or designee and a decision is made based upon whether adequate resources are available.

Fraud Procedures

• All Offense Reports will be accepted and entered into a database.
• Offense Reports will be assigned to detectives for investigation only after the Unit Supervisor determines relevant solvability factors are present compared with availability of Division resources.
• Cooperation of the citizen, banks, and merchants is required.  This will require that such agencies provide the original documentation for evidentiary purposes.

Elderly Scams

• The Forgery & Fraud Unit will assign all Elderly Fraud Reports for investigation.

Frauds Involving Utilities (telecommunications, cable, gas, electric)

• Telecommunications cases include frauds involving residential telephones, cellular telephones, pagers, and the internet.
• The majority of these transactions (as well as utility frauds) typically occur over the phone or via mail/internet.  Original documents, fingerprints, eyewitnesses are not available to provide solvability factors, and if a suspect is identified, physical evidence is not available for court.
• The Columbus Police Forgery & Fraud Unit does not assign these Offense Reports for investigation.
• The Forgery & Fraud Unit can offer suggestions for alternative solutions to minimize the impact.
  

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