Expert: Philip Sweeting - 11/8/2004

Question
Hi, Philip! :)

I am a screenwriting student working on a piece, and I am running into a problem. I don't know the first thing about police procedure. :)

Say you were a detective. You and your partner have been investigating a string of sexual assaults with similar details over the course of a month. All of the victims are similar, and all of the sexual assaults happened in pretty much the same way, within the same part of town. All were stranger rapes.

What would office look like? Would there be something like a map on the wall with pins in it, or have I watched too many movies? What kinds of things would you and your partner be discussing? Where would the investigation be, at that point?

Thanks in advance for helping out! I may have painted myself into a corner here...  

Answer
There could be a lot of things going on at once. I'll try and answer wiyhout making it confusing. All of these things would be coordinated by the lead detective but unlkie TV he may or may not be directly involved.

First there would probably be a decoy operation going on by this time. That is a female cop would be posing as a possible victim while under surveillance by other detectives. In otherwords she is acting like bait with the hopes of attracting the rapist to her. In addition to being watched by other cops, she would be wired for sound.

All the evidence would be checked against all known rapist and now there is what is called a DNA bank where any DNA evidence would be checked against DNA in the "bank". It would be like checking fingerprints against anyone who has their fingerprints on file. The DNA (semon) from the victims would be checked against anyone who has their DNA on file.

If there were any suspects, they might choose to question them or conduct surveliiance of them.

By this time they would probably have a description and they could be using the media to alert the public but by doing that they could also be alerting the suspect and scare him into hiding. That is one issue that will be debated by the detectives and their superiors that could become an issue. Some will argue not to tell the public for fear of causing a panic and alerting the suspect about what the police knows, but others will argue you must tell the public so they can take precautions.

The office could look like what you would see in the movies and they could also have some type of map with the locations and they would be trying to identify all the similarities among the victims.

Hope this helps.