The Initial Response

The initial response to a crime is the way in which a crime is first reported to the police and then the resulting response to this report of the crime. This stage logically comes first as it is the way in which the authorities become aware of a crime, because of this, this stage is a very important one as without it the police would not be aware of a crime and therefore an investigation would not take place. There are many ways in which crimes can be reported to the police in order for them to respond to the alert and depending on the situation – begin an investigation. Some examples of how crimes can be reported include: the victim of the crime reporting a crime against them or witnesses of the crime reporting the crime.

In the OJ Simpson case neighbours had heard Nicole Brown’s Dog barking and wailing for a substantial length of time, eventually – Just before midnight on June 12^th 1994 two passers-by heard and saw the distressed dog and on closer inspection, saw that the dog’s paws were covered in blood. The dog then led them to Nicole Brown’s pathway and then is when the two passers-by discovered a woman’s body in a pool of blood at the front of Nicole’s house. These passers-by distressed by what they had seen ran across the street and banged on another neighbours door, this neighbour worried somebody was trying to break into her house phoned the Los Angeles Police Department.

Robert Riske and Miguel Terrazas the first officers to attend to the neighbour’s house arriving just after midnight on 13^th June 1994 were informed by the two passers-by on arrival about the woman’s body across in Brown’s pathway. Riske and Terrazas then discovered the body of Nicole Brown and on further inspection also discovered the body of Ronald Goldman a short distance from Nicole’s body in the bushes of Brown’s garden.