The outcome of the trial may be greatly affected by the comprehensiveness of the first few hours of the investigation. Police officers/detectives need to identify and thoroughly interview any and all witnesses. Witnesses, and the information they hold, may be permanently lost to both to the prosecutor and the defense attorney unless the police take the time to locate and question them as early in the investigation as possible. The memories of few witnesses improve over time. That the police officers, detectives, and crime scene investigators arrive on the scene, see the evidence, document, photograph and collect the evidence, determine which, if any, witnesses they will interview, select the questions they ask them, decide what, if anything, of what the witness said will be memorialized in notes or a police report gives the prosecutor a huge advantage at trial.
