Expert: Jack Toomey - 4/16/2006

Question
Hello Jack,

I am working on a novel, and am having trouble asking local officers questions (partly because I am moving around a lot and cannot establish a rapport; partly because some of the officers who answered my inquiries seem to think it a waste of time).

My novel involves a Missing Person's report who turns out to be the Jane Doe in the morgue who was the victim of drunk driving. Although the novel is really about the anxiety of the person waiting for her to show up once again, I want the police scenes to ring true just as well.

So here are the questions:

-What sort of officer would be taking the report? Would it be the person at the desk or would they bring the family/friend further into the station?

-Would the person who takes the report be the same one who investigates it? Is the report taken then assigned or assigned and the investigator takes the report? Is there a minimum rank for these types of cases?

-Would the officer start investgating (i.e. heavy question the person making the report, visit the home, etc.) right away or would (s)he go over the report details and look into a few things before starting to poke around? Like get a feel for it, fill in gaps in the report first.

-Is comparing the missing person to unidentified people from the hospital/morgue the first thing they would try or does that come later?

Sorry, I know my questions are difficult but thank you for your patience.


Answer
Lauren,

    First of all you need to know that there are not two police departments in the entire country that operate the same way.  Sometimes authors and the general public assume that there are some kind of national standard operating procedure when nothing could be further from the truth.  So what I am saying is that department A would have a different procedure that department "B".

  I hope that this woman in the morgue was a pedestrian because there is no way that she would be unidentified if she was driving a car.  I don't need to get into the reason but I am sure that you realize that there are so many reasons that her identity would be none almost immediately if she was driving the car and killed.

  A missing person report could be taken in the station by a civilian clerk, by a sworn officer, or even a detective depending on how the PD operates.  The officer could also have responded to the complaintants house as a result of a telephone call.  And some missing persons reports are taken over the phone if the department has a telephone reporting unit for non serious calls.

  If it was an officer who had a little initiative then he/she might start investigating right away.  If not then maybe it would be passed on to the detective bureau but once again this all depends on how your police department operates.

  Who knows what the officer would do.  I don't think that it would be unheard of to visit the house of the missing person but I don't know how long she has been missing and who is reporting her missing.  If it has been a week and she has not shown up at her job then I would think that the police would go into her house if they had a key.  If has been just a few hours then I doubt if they would.

 In real life there are not many unidentified bodies in the morgue and those who are there are decomposed, skeletons, etc.  That would be a last resort and would take only a phone call since the morgue is usually located in the state capital unless this is a big city with their own morgue.  But no officer is going to be walking down a row of dead bodies looking for white girls who match the description of your girl.  That is not realistic.

  Let me know if I can help you with anything else or if anything here is not clear.