Expert: Jack Toomey - 7/3/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jack Toomey

I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me please.  I am writing a book ( I am not a published author ) however I have started writing this book and its flowing quite nicely for me so far.  

In the story there is a 3 and a 1/2 year old girl who gets kidnapped from her bed at night.  There is no forced entry, as the kidnapper came through the back door before it was locked for the night.  No one saw or heard anything, the little girl was taken while her younger brother and sister were left behind in the same room untouched.

What would the police procedure be for this case?

Who would be sent round to the house after the 911 call that the little girl was missing?

There is no note, ransom, or sign of a struggle, she is just merely gone, what would the police do?

Who would be called in as backup or for help?

How long would it be investigated when the only bit of evidence/witness that was found was a neighbour saw a black car parked up for a few hours but she cant remember what type or a registration number, just that it was there and she assumed it was someone's car who was visiting?

How would the investigation start and finish etc?

And what would the time scale of it all be when nothing is found?

I would really appreciate your response and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you
Karen


ANSWER: Karen,

  I'll try to help you but you have to understand that when you ask things like "what would the police do" or "what is the police procedure" that is a very general question and almost impossible to answer.  That is because every case is different, every officer is a different person who is thinking and acting independantly on his own, and police departments work independantly of each other and there are no national standards or procedures.  It would be like writing a book about a doctor and asking me what the doctor would do if someone complained of a headache.  If you took ten doctors they might do ten different things.

  Having said all of that I want to tell you that your plot is rather over the top.  In all of my years in law enforcement I have never been involved, never heard of, or had any experience with a case like you describe.  In other words it wouldn't happen in real life.  But I realize that your book is fiction so I will give this a try.

 1. police procedure?  Search the house.  Most missing children turn up somewhere in the house.  Either hiding or choosing a different place to sleep.  If the child is not in the house then obviously interview the parents (I presume that there are parents present), the other children, and interview the parents again.  If the child is truly missing then a radio lookout would be placed and then other police officers would become aware of the case by this lookout.

  Detectives and forensic people would come to the house and do their work.  More interviews, check for forced entry, things out of place, take photographs, look for disturbances in other rooms, seize the bed clothing of the child, fingerprint the bedroom, interview neighbors, and many other things.

2.  a uniformed officer would answer the original 911 call.  You are British?

 3.  revert back to question #1 for the answer.

 4   s/a

 5.  how long would it be investigated?  Are you asking me the number of days or weeks?  Of course it would be investigated until the child was found, either alive or dead.

 6. I don't understand what you mean.  Are you asking me to predict how the investigation would end?  I have no idea.  I think that is probably your job to write that part.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jack

Thank you very much for your response, it is greatly appreciated.  Just a few more questions for you as I didn't make certain things clear in the first email, and also some questions on your responses.

Ok, i appreciate the every police officer is different and would do things differently, so maybe you could answer these questions as what would you do, as the police officer under these circumstances so as I can follow your guidelines

2) Yes I am british, i just put 911 as an example.  At what point would the uniformed officer who answered the distress call call for backup / or an investigator etc?  And would he call the forensics team to do fingerprinting and photo's etc?

a)  What sort of questions would the initial detective ask the parents?

b)  Would he a police officer suspect foul play from the parents what with the lack of evidence and no forced entry, nothing disturbed or taken and no witnesses?  Also, would this delay them "dusting" for fingerprints etc?

c)  Would sniffer dogs be brought in to search for a body in the house and surrounding area's before finger printing, if the parents are suspected even though they are innocent?

d)  Also would they check the car for DNA etc of the girl when no foul play found in the house/garden?  If so when and under what realistic time scale?

e)  How long before they "dust" for finger prints?  What equipment is used?  How many people would be in the team to do it?  How long would it take to do this?  And what would the do with the fingerprints lifted, ie how do they check them with the people who live in the house and close family and friends and do they run any unknown fingerprints found through a database?  Only unknown fingerprints will be found on the outside handle on the back door and on the children's bedroom door on the the inside under the door handle as all the others in the house on the babygate and on the inside door handles will have been smudged by the parents (would this be a true reflection?  I assume that finger prints get smudged by ones on top and therefore become useless?)

f)  Once the police know the child has been abducted, what information will they release to the media and when?  Also the girl has some surgical scars from medical health procedures from when she was a baby, would this information and details be released to the public in the search for her?

g)  They will not find a match for the fingerprints nor any other evidence.  How long with they keep looking for the girl?  What time scale would it be before they would decide that nothing more can be done?

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this and answer my questions.  It is really hard to try and explain where I am going with the story, but I already know in my head what is going to happen, and it is very hard to pose my questions to you without sending you the book to read so you understand where I am coming from.

Looking forward to your response.
Thanks, Karen




ANSWER: Before I go any further with this does this crime happen in the UK or the United States?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: At the moment it's in the UK, and i know its going to be different over here to over there, but i'm just looking for guidelines.  There aren't any sites over here like this.  If I have to, I will base it in the US.

Thanks

Answer
Ok I suspected that this was happening in the UK because of the terminology that you used.  Almost everything that I told you yesterday could be and probably would be handled differently.  For example I know that sometimes detectives come straight from the station to handle cases in lieu of uniformed officers in your country. Police work is basically the same at ground level but how things get started and the investigative techniques are different in the United States.  I wish that you would have told me this because I put some effort into the answer.