Interview Witnesses

**Interview Witnesses** is a Action in Police Simulator: Patrol Officers. Interviewing witnesses is one of the few tasks required to collect Evidence.

## Brief

Witnesses can be encountered at car accidents and crime scenes. Common to all witnesses is that they can be interrogated. Witnesses in Brighton are legally obligated to identify themselves when asked for their ID by an officer.

## CAR ACCIDENT WITNESSES (PEDESTRIANS)

Pedestrians near a car accident who saw the car accident happening are witnesses. They stand on the sidewalk, waiting for the patrol officer to interrogate them. Interrogate them to discover clues and find out how the accident happened. Police officers are advised to let them go after interrogation. Once the accident investigation is resolved, they will leave, even if the officer doesn't let them go, as, in accordance with the Fourth Amendment, they are not officially detained and are free to leave.

## CAR ACCIDENT WITNESSES (DRIVERS)

The drivers involved in a car accident are also witnesses. In contrast to pedestrian witnesses, patrol officers are allowed to frisk driver witnesses and order them to perform a drug test. When an officer lets a driver witness go, they will either return inside their car and drive away or, if their car is too damaged, walk away. Make sure you've finished your accident investigation before letting driver witnesses go!
The intuition system will notify you as a popup hint when you've questioned all the involved witnesses

## CAR ACCIDENT REPORT

While investigating a car accident, the patrol officer writes a report with all the collected evidence and witness statements. Officers are advised to provide the involved drivers with a copy of the report once the investigation is completed.

In the callout UI, a progress bar shows the current status of the accident investigation. The more accurate the report is, the greater the number of Shift Points that will be earned for giving out the reports. There are multiple states of report completeness: Poor, Sufficient, Extensive, and Complete.

Report progression is influenced by the following actions:

* Interviewing pedestrian witnesses
* Interviewing driver witnesses
* Asking witnesses for ID
* Focusing on license plates with L (intact license plates only; fallen off license plates do not count)
* Photographing evidence
* Performing drug/alcohol tests (a positive result is valued higher than a negative result)

If officers need to arrest a driver witness, they are advised to give them the report before calling for arrest transport. Otherwise, the report can no longer be given to the citizen.

The report UI notifies you when every driver witness has received a report.

## CRIME WITNESSES

Witnesses to a crime are often encountered at a crime scene. Patrol officers are advised to interrogate them to find out who might have committed the crime. The more thoroughly witnesses are interrogated, the greater the number of hints that can be collected about the perpetrator. Collecting enough hints results in a wanted suspect callout.

Sometimes, there may not be sufficient hints to start a search. In such cases, the crime scene investigation is finished for the patrol officer.

Officers can let witnesses go. They will then remain at the crime scene and not walk away.