CRIMINALISTIC PLANNING OF SEARCHES AS A PREREQUISITE FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE EVIDENCE PROVING PROCESS

Abstract

Searches are an evidentiary action, but we consider them as a criminal-procedural criminalistic action because in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are directly carried out by police officers under the supervision of the prosecutor, usually based on a court order. The formal framework consists of imperative criminal-procedural norms, while the substance is directly determined by criminalistics through its implementation. A search is a coercive action, often urgent, which interferes with human rights protected by the Constitution and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A lawful search is conducted when the legitimate purpose cannot be achieved through a less repressive action. It must not be carried out impulsively, unplanned, or without method, as such an approach will either fail to achieve its intended purpose or only achieve it partially. Poorly, partially planned, or unplanned searches endanger both police officers and the persons being searched, as well as their property and other citizens, leaving the consequences to chance, with the best-case scenario being only the potential failure of the search. This paper highlights the importance of criminalistic planning of searches. It addresses the application of principles related to searches, criminalistic planning in both broader and narrower terms, examining the needs, challenges, and specificities of planning searches in BIH, depending on the subject of the search with a written court order, an oral court order, or in cases of searches without a warrant and without witnesses. The paper aims to support its findings with scientific-theoretical positions from criminal-procedural law and criminalistics, positions of the European Court of Human Rights, and examples of challenges from practice, while also offering the key elements that a written criminalistic search plan should include in potential planning for a search.