Cop Arrest Question

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  • Cop Arrest Question

    Any cops or people familiar with the law who might be able to answer this scenario -- if a person has broken the law (burglary), but is unable to speak once arrested, has no ID and is unwilling to cooperate with authorities (won't give his name or write it down) then how would they find out this person's identity if he has no prior record?
    One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

    The Fiction Story Room

  • #2
    Re: Cop Arrest Question

    This case springs to mind:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...76O31320110725

    It turned out his name was Mr Beavers. I can understand why he stayed silent.

    Mac
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    • #3
      Re: Cop Arrest Question

      "He said there was a point at some time that he would need to get out of jail,"
      Yea no sh&^% mystery man. So this dude must be on the run from the mobb or something worse...the IRS.
      One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

      The Fiction Story Room

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      • #4
        Re: Cop Arrest Question

        Eventually the police would ask the public for help identifying the man.
        Vancouver Screenwriters Meetup Group

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        • #5
          Re: Cop Arrest Question

          I asked a cop I know and he kept saying they could use his fingerprints from the scene of the crime or from whatever he touches inside the police station when he is booked. He also mentioned DNA.....but isn't all that pointless if the suspect has had no priors?
          One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

          The Fiction Story Room

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          • #6
            Re: Cop Arrest Question

            Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
            I asked a cop I know and he kept saying they could use his fingerprints from the scene of the crime or from whatever he touches inside the police station when he is booked. He also mentioned DNA.....but isn't all that pointless if the suspect has had no priors?
            It might be pointless, but many people (me, for instance) have their fingerprints in a national uber-prints-database even though they've never been charged with a crime. You must submit fingerprints for a variety of reasons, depending on state and federal laws, e.g., to work as a security guard, to work at a bank, to get a concealed weapon permit, to obtain a government security clearance, etc.

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            • #7
              Re: Cop Arrest Question

              Hell, my fingerprints are on file from a school field trip to a precinct. I live in Canada though, we don't have the same, ah, freedoms here.
              Vancouver Screenwriters Meetup Group

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              • #8
                Re: Cop Arrest Question

                Yea that's true, I think I had to do it when I took a summer job at the post office back in college. Maybe I can have the cops stumble upon his prints in some kind of way like that.
                One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                The Fiction Story Room

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                • #9
                  Re: Cop Arrest Question

                  Originally posted by Paul Striver View Post
                  It might be pointless, but many people (me, for instance) have their fingerprints in a national uber-prints-database even though they've never been charged with a crime. You must submit fingerprints for a variety of reasons, depending on state and federal laws, e.g., to work as a security guard, to work at a bank, to get a concealed weapon permit, to obtain a government security clearance, etc.
                  A lot of people don't have their fingerprints on file. If you are looking up prints in the US you're using the FBI database. They have about 50 million prints on file. Not sure if that's limited to living but for the sake of argument lets say it is - that means there are appx 258 million people in the country that don't have their prints stored with the feds. That's a hell of a lot of people and a lot more that don't than do.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Cop Arrest Question

                    Well I'm not sure if this will help you but I remember earlier this year they convicted this serial killer from like South Central or something and they already got him on a couple murders but they found a bunch of photos of women in his home and they had no idea who they were or if they were alive still or just more victims, so they printed up all the photos in the paper and asked people to help them identify all of them and verify they weren't murdered or raped.

                    Looked it up and found the photos:

                    http://www.lataco.com/taco/serial-ki...st-los-angeles

                    Checking it out again and I'm surprised this didn't make a bigger splash in the press. Photographer who lured dozens of young hopeful models to their death. Sounds like it's made for TV.

                    Looks like they're still trying to identify them: http://lacountymurders.com/wanted/LADIES1.html

                    EDIT: Actually the above guy is a different LA serial killer with a similar situation this is the guy I was talking about:

                    http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-16/j...se?_s=PM:CRIME

                    Creepy coincidence though, apparently the model killer killed from 1966 to 1984 and the Grim sleeper killed from 1985 to the present. Changing of the Los Angeles serial killer guard in 1985?



                    Here's the LAPD's website for unidentified victims and wanted suspects: http://lacountymurders.com/unidentified_victims.cfm
                    Last edited by Archduke; 09-08-2011, 02:51 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Cop Arrest Question

                      Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
                      Yea that's true, I think I had to do it when I took a summer job at the post office back in college. Maybe I can have the cops stumble upon his prints in some kind of way like that.
                      Honest reaction here, for whatever it's worth -- I don't know what your actual story is, but if his identity is any kind of initial mystery that the cops have to figure out, fingerprints seems like kind of too easy a solution. That said, I'm sure there could be a way to make it interesting, and I hope this doesn't come off as negative. Just that, when I read the fingerprints solution, I thought to myself, "Oh, yeah, that's probably the realistic approach... but it seems a bit boring." But, since I only have the one detail to go on, I might be thinking the elephant is a snake because of his trunk, if you know what I mean.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Cop Arrest Question

                        For now I've decided not to reveal how the cops in my story have figured out his name (the criminal). I've flagged that section to come back to once I've figured out how cops identify a suspect without any priors and refusal to talk. I need to know what steps a cop takes when they don't have the typical fingerprint database as a solution. Right now it looks like they just keep your a$$ locked up until they figure it out or you decide to talk.
                        One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                        The Fiction Story Room

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                        • #13
                          Re: Cop Arrest Question

                          I remember that David Simon's book 'Homicide' describes a detective who turned an unidentified victim from a "Jane Doe" into an actual name through what he referred to as "stone-cold police work". Unfortunately, I don't think he explained the details. (They had a mini-arc in the second season of 'The Wire', presumably based on the same events, where Detective McNulty attempts to do so, but I believe he fails.)

                          Instead of thinking "What is the way that they would do this?", maybe try to come at it from a different angle -- there are multiple ways they could use to achieve, depending on specific details; maybe he has a specific tattoo. Maybe he has a very specific defect in his eyesight that requires a certain prescription in his eyeglasses that was paid for with his insurance?

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                          • #14
                            Re: Cop Arrest Question

                            Why would the police need to know his name? If they have some evidence that he committed the burglary, they would charge, try, and likely convict and sentence him as a 'John Doe. They have their criminal; they don't need to know who he is to proceed against him. It's his loss not to contribute to his own defense.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Cop Arrest Question

                              I agree with Scriptonian. You don't need to know identity to try or sentence anyone. In real life the information is almost always discovered though it make take time. Magistrates or judges will put a condition of bail that identity be known before a person is released. So this is not a legal question but a writing question. Yes, you already knew that.

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