Oops. Just found an unanswered question left over from our investigations webinar and blog series earlier in the year. Apologies if it was yours.
The question revolves around employer and investigator interactions with the Police where the subject matter of your workplace investigation is potentially criminal conduct, and is maybe best answered as a series of separate points.
Even if you know or strongly believe there to have been some criminal offence committed or reported by your employee you are generally under no positive duty to report it to the Police, nor (even if you choose to do so) to do it within any set period after the issue comes to your attention.
If you do contact the Police, beware of the possibility that doing so without reasonably strong grounds or (in most cases) without prior notification to the employee in question could get close to constructive dismissal as a breach of trust and confidence. [In some limited respects (especially around terrorism or certain insider dealing offices) it is a legal requirement that you do not tip off the employee, but otherwise there will rarely be good grounds for not warning him of your intention].
If you can avoid it, either as employer and investigator, do not make the progress of your investigation in any way dependent upon the criminal process. First, the delay may be longer than you can manage, but much more importantly, remember that you and the Police are operating to wholly different...
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