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a bit of background. I write and vanity publish pulpy erotic mystery novels and share with them close friends for fun. I don't sell them, or offer them online ( you want an ebook to "acquire," you can get one from scanning each printed page) but lately i've found myself very curious about the more technical police procedure that the average non cop doesn't know. Is it worth hiring one of those consultants I read about in Writers digest? Should I take a cop friend out for dinner, buy them a car? Or should I just troll the net and ask q's as a pseudonym?

You could also do what I did: pick up a copy of Criminology for Dummies. Doesn't give you greatly in-depth stuff, but it's a good start. Another book I really liked was called Howdunit.

Or, you could also chat with Officer Charon. If you're nice, I'm sure he'll offer some help.

It's not as though I'm a hard person to bribe... *chuckles*

In all seriousness, ask away. Whatever I don't know, I'll find out, on the pretext of "Hey, this occurred to me: what if...?"

...Rick Castle??

Also, good on ya for doing the research. I'm always afraid of writing something like "The bullet wounds told me everything: he was stabbed to death."

ThatNickGuy said:

Also, good on ya for doing the research. I'm always afraid of writing something like "The bullet wounds told me everything: he was stabbed to death."

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I demand you write a story in this style. That one line made me chuckle.

Splotchy blood surrounded the body in the middle of the desert. Bits of meat strewn about. Some still hung off the beaks of lounging buzzards.

Yep, he had clearly drowned.

General Specific said:

I demand you write a story in this style. That one line made me chuckle.

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Seconded.

Please have this detective be completely right about who did it for all the wrong reasons.

American police procedures, definitely ask Officer C. Canadian ones, I can probably help, but holy shit working in my new position am I learning how fucking little I knew working in shitberg.

Good thing you were able to migrate south then, eh?

Huh. I didn't know you worked for the law, Frankie.

I suddenly want to make a Preacher: Salvation joke.

Dude, he, uh, kinda works for ALL the police in Canada. Y'know, being a Mountie and all. *grins*

ThatNickGuy said:

Huh. I didn't know you worked for the law, Frankie.

I suddenly want to make a Preacher: Salvation joke.

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You didn't know that? I don't know frankie well, but the two things I know about him is he likes preacher and he's a mountie. Since he's canadian, I also suspect he's a lumberjack, and possibly a moose, but that's purely speculation

I'm sure it's been mentioned many times before. But I have a lousy memory.

Ravenpoe said:

You didn't know that? I don't know frankie well, but the two things I know about him is he likes preacher and he's a mountie. Since he's canadian, I also suspect he's a lumberjack, and possibly a moose, but that's purely speculation

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Don't forget that he has Maple Syrup for breakfast every morning. Not even on anything, just chugged straight from the bottle.

He is all that is man.

Q1: Premise: our protagonist is an average joe who used to be a boxer in highschool. He's out at a fast food joint when a thief bursts in, and demands money from the cashier. the cashier panics, and the thief shoots him dead. This of course panics the bystanders, who try to flee the restaurant. Thief starts panicking and starts shooting bystanders at random. Our Protagonist takes matters into his own hands and wrestles the gun away, but since he's Not A Hero, he's nervous as he engages the man in fisticuffs. As bystanders flee the scene the Lone Cop arrives, aware of multiple fatalities and see two men fighting, both covered in blood. Both men are too busy trying to kill/survive the other that they fail to respond to the cop's presence. What happens next?

You forgot to put in the "dun-dun-DUUUUN at the end"

But otherwise it sounds pretty cool

The cop shouts, "STOP OR I'LL POOT!"

The two men scufflnig turn to look, unsure if they heard correctly or not.

After several long seconds, the officer breaks wind.

All three of them burst out in laughter and join each other for coffee.

... Hot Coffee.

(Bow Chicka Wow Wow)

Sounds like a prime case for a tazer deployment to me... ideally, you try and arc it so the prongs would intercept both combatants - thus the arc stays effective while they're still fighting.

Assuming no tazer available, I would take a position of cover, draw down at the low ready (weapon out, but pointed towards the ground, ready to aim at one or the other), keep calling for backup, and keep shouting loud verbal commands to get on the ground.

The unfortunate thing here is it's entirely possible that Our Protagonist may end up getting shot, if the officer feels that he's about to shoot the dirty. (Deadly force is permitted in Georgia in defense of your life, defense of another's life, or to prevent the commission of a violent felony -rape, armed robbery etc...).

That's actually a VERY good training scenario... the hardest part about this job, when arriving on a scene like that, there is NO possible way to know the facts of the matter, unless a complainant calls in a suspect description.

THANKS!
Next Q: averaging or guessing if you don't know, how much money is involved in resources and man hours when a suspect is fatally shot, assuming there are multiple witnesses testifying that dead suspect was shooting others dead? IE the cop takes a "clean, good shot" Essentially, how much does it cost the government to shoot a perp dead?

Ufdah.... I'm gonna have to do some research on that one... that's more a concern for the brass than a "boots on the ground" guy like me... a couple of the more senior guys in my precinct have worked in Violent Crimes before, and one's got a wife in the Office of Professional Standards (aka Internal Affairs), so I should be able to come up with something good for you.

Rough estimate at this time? About $5000-$10000, for everybody's time, the expense of the forensics processing, the investigation and any overtime. Oh, and the $0.68 for the cost of the round.

And if several witnesses say the suspect was innocent/unarmed? that the shot wasn't obviously clean?

Obviously, there's going to be a much more thorough investigation, going over everything multiple times, perhaps multiple review boards... expect it to double, at least.

And this doesn't even BEGIN to touch on the civil litigation that will inevitably come from the dead person's family suing the department.

Man, shooting someone is expensive.

Curious Question: Lets say the police came on the scene and DOES NOT know who is good guy/bad guy. Both are wrestling on the ground. One of the dead was Protagonist brother. I know if I was my brother, I would kill the other guy. The protagonist got the gun and shoot the bad guy. Assuming the police yell everyone to get on the ground, but lets say the protagonist is hard of hearing and didn't hear the warning and the other guy didn't care (he already kill what? 2 or 3 people)

Chibibar said:

Curious Question: Lets say the police came on the scene and DOES NOT know who is good guy/bad guy. Both are wrestling on the ground. One of the dead was Protagonist brother. I know if I was my brother, I would kill the other guy. The protagonist got the gun and shoot the bad guy. Assuming the police yell everyone to get on the ground, but lets say the protagonist is hard of hearing and didn't hear the warning and the other guy didn't care (he already kill what? 2 or 3 people)

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Oh oh, and they're both identical twins!

Which one do you shoot? WHICH ONE!?!?

Ravenpoe said:

Oh oh, and they're both identical twins!

Which one do you shoot? WHICH ONE!?!?

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Actually, a lone cop walks in (per amy's post) see blood all over and two men fighting. Without any report or hysterical witness or even a planted witness (i.e. a 2nd person pretend to be witness) could muck things up (ooo that could work) ok. I better stop now or amy gonna gouge my eyeballs out.

Guys, let's not take this from "realistic or plausible scenario" to "Fox drama series episode"

Null said:

Guys, let's not take this from "realistic or plausible scenario" to "Fox drama series episode"

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But.. but I had Imogen Heap all queued up and ready to go!

Q: a woman rear ends another woman, who follows the offender to a stop light, screams that "she's an off duty cop," snaps a picture of the offender's license plate and yells as she drives off "You're going to get a ticket!" Is she guilty of anything besides law enforcement impersonation?

And let's say she /was/ an off duty cop. Wouldn't she just whip out ye olde badge and gun and or call for back up?

If she WASN'T an off-duty cop, then yes, she'd be guilty of impersonating an officer... POSSIBLY of Disorderly Conduct, as well, depending on words and phrases used. The two of them could get cozy in the back of a wagon together.

If she WAS an off-duty officer, then yes, producing the badge and informing the hit-and-run driver that she was under arrest would be an option. More likely, she would call it into the dispatch center, identify herself by name and payroll/badge number, and advise of vehicle description, tag, direction, and incident, and await a uniformed officer to make a traffic stop. At that time, once the officer has the suspect's information, and has verified that there's no weapons in the car, she could let him know what happened. Officers can make warrantless arrests based on the testimony of another officer, provided the incident had just occurred.

Also, after conferring with my Sgt, my figures from earlier were roughly correct, if a touch conservative. A good shoot, after factoring in all the call-out pay, overtime, and straight time for EVERYONE involved, can run about $10 grand. For a BAD shoot, you have to start including people like the DA's office, and that racks up the price tag.

Thanks tonnes!

*scurries off to murder someone by chapter 2*

"What noone knew at the time was that 'Chapter 2' was the name of a nearby club. Now she knew what mistakes NOT to make."

Null said:

Guys, let's not take this from "realistic or plausible scenario" to "Fox drama series episode"

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Don't worry. The show already got cancelled.