[ SECRET POST #3062 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3062 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #438.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[replicantangel]

Most crimes aren't mysteries though. Either the police know who did it (because of witnesses, forensics, video, etc) or they don't. If there's no information to follow up on, the case will be closed for most stuff like property crime. The murders/bank robberies/assaults often are pretty clear cut too - they just require a lot of paperwork and talking to people. The few that aren't clear cut are mostly paper work and talking to people. Of course there are "aha!" moments, but 9 times out of 10, it's not a surprise. Sometimes, you know who it is but just can't prove it. That's just frustrating.

I think there are a lot of puzzle-solving types of careers and/or careers where you help people out there. If you boil down to what element of TV policing is most enticing, I'm sure you could do it. And that's assuming you really are "too old", which you probably aren't. I've known guys in their 40s to go through the academy and do really well for themselves. And the physical qualifications are not that difficult for your average person in an average municipality. Just know that cold cases getting re-opened, much less solved, is rare, and forensics is nothing like CSI. Although being okay with death/gore is a good point, because the number of dead people you'd see is high. (And they're very often naked.)

But don't let your doubts (or my cynicism) deter you if it's what you really want to do. Agencies need passionate, dedicated and ethical people.

[dreemyweird]

To be fair, though, this does depend on your definition of a "mystery". Yeah, most crimes aren't Lewis-type puzzles involving Shakespeare quotes written in blood and Beethoven's 5th symphony, but the "proving the person's guilt" bit can get pretty tricky. You have to identify the incriminating evidence, or find an inconsistency in the witnesses' statements, or a hole in the suspect's alibi - these are all pretty common, even if the identity of the criminal is, in the end, no surprise.

[replicantangel]

I agree, and I should have been more clear. What you describe is what I meant by "the few that aren't clear cut". The ones that *are* clear cut would be the bank robber that gets arrested running from the scene or the burglar who shows his well-known face on video and fingerprints on the glass tabletop. Those ones are just a matter of writing the report, getting statements, sending evidence to the labs, and issuing a warrant - not a lot of mystery in any sense of the word.

Occasionally a few of the not-clear-cut cases are true, honest-to-goodness mysteries. More often, they're as you described, and all about ferreting out the evidence that will send someone to prison.

A lot of not-clear-cut cases though get closed or inactivated as soon as they cross a desk. It's a mystery what happened, but if the crime is not serious enough, the detectives will not put forth any more effort than the patrolman that took the initial report. Burglaries of vehicles, for instance, are notoriously difficult to solve, but unless they're caught red-handed, the suspect usually gets away with it. I mention this because a lot of people like their mysteries of any level to get solved and resolved, but in policing, you have to live with disappointment in that area.

[(Anonymous)]

Who's Lewis?

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure DW's referring to the show Inspector Lewis.