Tasking Log
Definition
The written record of every instruction, decision, and team action during a search operation. It is a contemporaneous document admissible as evidence and essential for any subsequent review of the search's adequacy.
- Context
- Search operation management
- Content
- Instructions, decisions, team actions
- Nature
- Contemporaneous written record
- Legal status
- Admissible as evidence
Common questions
Why does the tasking log need to be contemporaneous rather than reconstructed afterward?+
A record made at the time carries more evidential weight and is far less vulnerable to memory error or challenge in court than one written up after the fact, and contemporaneous timestamps let a reviewer verify that decisions were made in a logical sequence as information became available.
Who typically reviews the tasking log after a search concludes?+
It is usually examined by a search adviser or senior investigating officer conducting a post-search review, and it may also be disclosed to the defence or scrutinised in court if the adequacy or legality of the search is challenged.
Related terms
- Desk-Based Assessment
- The pre-fieldwork intelligence phase in which investigators review maps, aerial images, witness accounts, and land records to define a search area and...
- Hypothesis-Led Search
- A search approach that targets specific locations predicted by intelligence or terrain analysis, testing those predictions before expanding to lower-probability areas.
- POLSA
- Police Search Advisor: a specialist role in England and Wales responsible for planning and commanding a search operation, selecting methods, and maintaining...
- Probability Mapping
- A spatial analysis technique that assigns relative likelihood scores to grid cells or terrain zones based on accessibility, soil type, offender behaviour...
- Systematic-Grid Search
- An approach that divides the search area into a uniform grid and covers each cell at equal density, used when the deposit...