Flagrancy Investigation Procedure

Extract

[...] Procedure When a flagrancy investigation is opened, it is carried out under the supervision of the Public Prosecutor as soon as he is presented as the \"director of the investigation\" ("article 39-3 of the Penal Procedure Code). Within the framework of this investigation, police officers have the possibility of carrying out various investigative acts: search (article 56 of the Penal Procedure Code), free witness hearing (article 61-1 of the Penal Procedure Code), performance of technical or scientific examinations (article 60 of the Penal Procedure Code), identity check ( [...]

[...] This specifically targets crimes and misdemeanors and necessarily excludes contraventions for which a fine is incurred. - A a criterion of appearance : as its name indicates, investigators act within the framework of flagrance, which requires establishing apparent signs of delinquent behavior, including signs that allow for the detection of the commission of an offense. If the most apparent index is often the discovery of a knife near a crime scene, of narcotics at a sale point, these indices can also be materialized by a call to the authorities by one or more neighbors who would have been witnesses to an offense. [...]

[...] The flagrant offence requires to be revealed within 24 hours of its commission. However, the flagrancy inquiry can also intervene for an offence reproached to a person who would be pursued by public clamour (which refers to non-anonymous denunciation by neighbours, etc.) or when the person is found in possession of an object, indices or traces suggesting that they participated in the commission of a crime or a delict. This finding can be revealed, for example, during an identity check ( [...]

[...] Flagrancy inquiry I. Definition When investigators become aware of an offense, whether through a complaint from the alleged victim of a criminal offense or an external call, investigators - under the supervision of the Public Prosecutor are required to intervene and conduct an investigation to provide the Public Prosecutor with the necessary elements, who will then decide on the outcome. The flagrancy inquiry is therefore one of the modes of intervention of the investigations, alongside which there is also the flagrancy inquiry or the investigations for suspected death or for disturbing disappearance Given that it is a particularly coercive framework for investigation, in order to determine whether we are in the context of a flagrancy inquiry, certain criteria must be observed. [...]