When conducting an investigation, you may have to interview someone who has been accused of an act that is a violation of your workplace policy and also a crime. When this occurs, most often you will conduct two entirely separate interviews—one being done by the employer and the other being handled by law enforcement.
On occasion, law enforcement officials may be willing to share their notes with you, but this is rare. They may also ask that you provide your notes to them. If you get this request, you should consult with legal counsel to determine whether you wish to comply in the absence of a subpoena.
Please keep in mind that any time you’re interviewing someone who has also been accused of a crime for having engaged in the same act, you should keep very clear and accurate files. If it’s your normal practice to take handwritten notes and later transcribe those notes, you should make sure that you don’t, under any circumstances, discard your handwritten notes or else you could be accused of tampering with or destroying evidence. This applies even if it’s your normal practice to transcribe your notes and destroy the originals.
In the rare event that the police wish to sit in on your interview of the accused, you generally don’t have a choice. However, you may ask law enforcement if they’re willing to let you conduct your own interview, explaining to them that you think you will get more truthful testimony if the police aren’t present. Quite frequently law enforcement is willing to do this as they then get access, have two separate statements, one given to the employer and another to law enforcement, that they may compare to look for important inconsistencies.
Reference: What happens when the police want to share your investigation? HR Daily Advisor (11/21/2013).
