09/05/2019
Early Case Closure | Ten One - New Zealand Police Intranet
Early Case Closure
Rationale
The practice of pursuing follow-up investigations into offences where there is little or no
likelihood of locating the offender or recovering property is no longer acceptable.
The Early Case Closure system allows for an early decision to be made on whether any
reported offence warrants further inquiry and also clarifies the filing criteria. Additionally it
supplies a victim with a record of the complaint for future police or insurance company
notifications.
Policy
Supervisors must be aware of the need to eliminate unproductive follow-up and multiple
file handling and recording so that resources may be concentrated on cases which are
likely to yield results. An early decision on whether further inquiry is warranted is essential
in every case.
The system is based on the absence of viable leads at the time a complaint is initially
received, either at a police office or at the conclusion of the initial attendance.
Procedure
Early case closure will be implemented as follows:
For Category 4 (Volume) cases at the completion of the Initial File Assessment process
where the solvability threshold has not been reached - i.e. where the IFA score is less than
seven and there are no aggravating factors that would justify further enquiries.
For cases in categories 3 (Priority) ,2 (Critical) or 1( Mandatory) where a review and
calculation of the rating of the case by the investigation unit supervisor reveals that the
circumstances of the case and viable lines of enquiry do not justify the resources required
to investigate the case.
The following steps must be taken when implementing Early Case Closure:
Confirm that the case is correctly entered into NIA including narrative.
The case is categorised by crime type. (1-4)
For category 4 (Volume) cases the IFA checklist is electronically attached to the NIA
record.
https://tenone.police.govt.nz/page/early-case-closure
1/2
09/05/2019
Early Case Closure | Ten One - New Zealand Police Intranet
The fact that IFA has been completed is recorded in NIA
The fact that Early Case Closure has been applied is recorded in NIA
The victim is notified by letter that early case closure has been applied.
For category 1, 2 and 3 cases the case rating has been calculated and recorded and any
relevant information to support ECC are recorded within the narrative or using the NIA
review function.
Last modiļ¬ed: 16/01/2018
https://tenone.police.govt.nz/page/early-case-closure
2/2
