PI's: Using an Incident Timeline

Some investigations into incidents, criminal or surveillance activity can be difficult to convey to your client in a written report. Establishing a clear timeline in chronological order can greatly assist in sharing information with your client they can understand. Here are a few timeline format ideas to help in your next investigation: 
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• Straight Timeline - This is a timeline where the action from one moment to the next or is one step to another. For example; a customer is injured by slipping on a wet a floor. The timeline will start with the causal action, water on the floor and continue through the incident and response. 

​Slip & Fall Jones Retail Store

• 10:15 am - Employee begins mopping floor immediately in front of the entrance/exit door. 
• 10:20 am - Employee is called to the front desk by a customer for assistance. 
• 10:25 am - Customer pays for items then walks to entrance/exit door stepping on the wet floor and claims to have fallen. 
• 10:28 am - Employee returns to entrance/exit area and finds customer sitting on the floor near the wet surface. 
• 10:38 am - Emergency medical technicians arrive and transport customer. 
• 10: 45 am - Employee calls manager who is at the main office and notifies her of the fall. 
• The straight timeline provides the reader with a 'step-by-step' list of actions based on the approximate time they occurred. 

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• Parallel Timeline - Some incidents have two or more action timelines that may run parallel to each other. These are multiple actions that are happening at the same time. The best format is to create columns to track the multiple actions and follow the straight timeline method for each column. For example; a fight breaks out on a property between employees. There is the action of the fight participants that engage in the fight. The investigation also determines the action(s) of the on-site security officer who is working in another area when it occurs. The first column begins with documenting the actions of the fight participants while the second column starts at the time the security officer was notified, then his/her actions in responding to the incident from another location. Following is an example: 

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Employee Altercation

Fight
11:30 am - Both employees began verbally arguing at the loading dock. Employee 1 walks toward the parking lot yelling. 
11:35 am - Employee 2 begins walking toward the parking lot in the direction Employee 1 went. 
11:40 am - Witnesses observe Employee's 1&2 in a physical altercation in the parking lot. 
11:40 am - Manager calls the security officer and reports the fight. 




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​11:45 am - Employees observe the security officer exit the back door and run to where the employees are fighting. 

Security Officer
​11:30 am - Security Officer is on post at the front desk in the lobby. (Approximately 5 minutes walking time to incident location)






11:41 am - (time recorded in security log) - Officer receives call from the manager. 
11:42 am - Officer calls site supervisor via radio and advises him of the fight in the parking lot. 
11:42 am - Two employees observe the security officer running toward the back of the building in the direction of the parking lot talking on his radio. 

11:45 am - Officer arrives on scene and begins trying to separate employees. 

11:50 am - Security Site supervisor arrives to assist Officer. 

The parallel timeline clearly demonstrates the two actions as they occur. From the timeline it is easy to see the security officer responded as quickly as possible, as well as, the manager notified the security officer in a timely manner. 

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Timelines are a great tool to clearly demonstrate, document the results of the facts gathered, making it easy for others to understand what and when something occurred. As a private investigator gathering facts it is important to provide them to the client in a format they can understand, almost visualize what occurred.