Unconventional reconnaissance and detection methods in the system of fighting crime

Fighting crime is an important dimension of security policy; therefore, it is a major challenge for law enforcement agencies. In order to increase the effectiveness of crime fighting, both in the European Union and in Poland, the detection process makes use of all legally permissible, primarily empirically verified detection activities, but also of reconnaissance and detection methods which are regarded in doctrine and practice as controversial, unconventional and inadmissible by the provisions of procedural law for procedural and evidentiary activities. However, their practical application is allowed within the framework of forensic (out-of-trial) undertakings, which increases the scope of possibilities of law enforcement authorities to add methods which – as practice shows – support conventional methods in combating crime. However, the selection of optimal unconventional measures in the implementation of process-criminal activities depends on the state of knowledge of the regularities governing this phe-nomenon, its conditions and the mechanism of functioning of the manifestations which comprise it. The aim of this chapter is to present practical possibilities for the out-of-trial use of unconventional reconnaissance and detection methods that support the detection process.