Once you have filed a police report, a police officer or a prosecutor will make an assessment of whether there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed. If so, they begin a police investigation that is called a preliminary investigation.
You can take a support person with you to the police. This may be a person you know or somebody from the social services, a support person for victims of crime or a women’s refuge. For some crimes, you can also receive a legal counsel, called counsel for an injured party which you do not need to pay for. If you want counsel for an injured party, you must tell it the prosecutor or police officer responsible for the preliminary investigation.