Home | Training | Contact Empowering Investigative Excellence Edition 6 of the BDG Investigator Bulletin is now available. This one is an AI Special for Investigators with no technical knowledge required. AI for investigators is no longer a future question. Most people conducting investigations in local government and the wider public sector are already using these tools, usually Microsoft Copilot, built into the software they use every day. Survey evidence published this sum

Home | Training | Contact Empowering Investigative Excellence Edition 6 of the BDG Investigator Bulletin is now available. This one is an AI Special for Investigators with no technical knowledge required. Most investigators are already using AI, usually Microsoft Copilot, built into the software you use every day. In the main, the AI tools arrived before any formal training did. THE PUBLIC SECTOR PICTURE 45% use AI daily — the lowest adoption of any sector surveyed 50% have n

By Bob Denaro (KPM) · BDG Training Team · August 2026 Using AI to prepare to give evidence can amount to witness coaching — that is the clear warning from the Court of Appeal in R v FGD [2026] EWCA Crim 918. A prosecution witness had used AI to generate a mock cross-examination of their account, complete with suggested answers. This post explains what happened, what the court decided, and what it means for anyone who gives evidence. What happened in R v FGD? During a rape tri

Published by Bob Denaro (KPM) @ BDG Training Team The Government has published Modernising the Criminal Disclosure Regime (CP 1601), on 14th July 2026 which is its formal response to two of the most significant reviews of criminal disclosure in a generation. For anyone who investigates, prosecutes, or reviews cases under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996, it is worth reading closely, not least because training and competence run through almost every commitmen

By Bob Denaro (KPM) @ BDG Training Team · July 2026 Listen to the question. Pause to think. Answer clearly and at a slow pace and direct your answers to the judge or magistrates, not to the advocate. Before you enter the witness box • Read your statement — multiple times. It forms the basis of every question you will face. • Request sight of it in advance. Courts have approved this. • Read all exhibited documents. Know your case materials inside out. • Pre-empt challenges. Be

By Bob Denaro (KPM) @ the BDG Training Team · June 2026 Digital disclosure is a time-consuming, complex exercise and unless it is addressed from the earliest stage of an investigation, it will be challenging to complete it properly before trial. These are the key actions, drawn from Annex A of the Attorney General's Guidelines on Disclosure and the leading case law. Five key actions from the outset 1. Start early Consider disclosure from the earliest opportunity. Unless the d

By Bob denaro (KPM) @ the BDG Training Team · June 2026 Two Court of Appeal authorities define how investigators must manage digital material: R v Richards & Others [2015] EWCA Crim 1941 and R v Bater-James & Anor [2020] EWCA Crim 790. Their principles apply to every CPIA bound investigation involving digital material, regardless of scale. The obligations do not diminish because a case is smaller. R v Richards & Others [2015]: disclosure must be planned from day one [2015] EW

By Bob Denaro (KPM) @ the BDG Training Team · June 2026 Every investigation is unique, but the foundations are consistent and they apply to any investigator, in any organisation. At the core sits one principle: assume nothing, believe nothing, challenge everything. The five building blocks • Professional curiosity — the discipline of asking 'why?' and 'what else might explain this?' •The 5WH framework — structuring your investigation around Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

By Bob Denaro (KPM) · June 2026 Investigative Building Blocks and the Golden Hour is the critical window immediately after an incident or report is received, when the right actions, taken promptly, can make or break an investigation. The term originates in emergency medicine but has long been embedded in investigative practice and forms prt of essential Detective and SenioirInvestigating Officer Training within the Police and government agencies . For all criminal and civil

By Bob Denaro (KPM) · May 2026 The PEACE model is the national framework for investigative interviewing: Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, and Evaluation. Applied well, it gives investigators the best opportunity to gather accurate, complete and reliable information in a legally defensible way. An unstructured interview risks leading questions, missed areas, and a record that will not withstand court scrutiny. Preparation and Planning Know the of

By Bob Denaro (KPM) · May 2026 “You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.” Every investigator can recite the police caution wording. Far fewer can explain it and Code C expects both.The caution has three parts, each doing distinct legal work. The three parts of the caution 1. The right to silence “You do not have to say anything.”

By Bob Denaro (KPM) BDG Training Team · April 2026 Digital evidence must be captured with a clear legal basis, protected by layers of security and unbroken audit trail, stored on access-controlled systems and for voluminous digital material early prosecutor engagement from the start. Handled incorrectly, digital material can be ruled inadmissible, expose your investigation to legal challenge, or collapse a prosecution entirely. Digital material now features in virtually every

IPCO's Position Explained By Bob Denaro (KPM) · April 2026 If AI tools — including Microsoft Copilot — are used at any stage of preparing or supporting a RIPA or IPA application, that use should be declared and documented within the application itself. IPCO inspectors will ask. Be ahead of it. IPCO's Scope of Interest in AI In March 2025, the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office (IPCO) published its Scope of Interest in AI policy. IPCO is principally interested in two

Can investigators use AI tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot? Yes — provided they stay within their authority's approved environment, verify every output against source material and document where and how AI was used. From Copilot in your inbox to AI-assisted drafting of investigation reports, artificial intelligence is already embedded in investigation work. The duty now is to use it responsibly and to understand who is watching. What Copilot can genuinely do for investigato