ABSTRACT
The supervision of criminal investigations has often been thought of simply in terms of the relationship between investigators and their immediate supervisors. When things go wrong with a criminal investigation, it is often attributed to failings in front-line supervision. There is no doubt that the relationship between supervisors and investigators is extremely important but its effectiveness in ensuring the quality of criminal investigations is influenced by a far wider range of considerations. These include the governance and accountability arrangements of the police services; the way in which strategic priorities are set; the policy framework within which criminal investigations are carried out; how crimes are allocated; and the business processes that are available to manage them. Equally important are the performance management regimes put into place by police forces to ensure that the resources allocated to criminal investigation are achieving the policy aims and objectives set for them.
