Crime Stories

How do the authorities catch these two criminals?

I'm writing a book and I'm uninformed about how police work. Suppose that two criminals are on wanted be the authorities – FBI, police, etc. They know what the criminals look like and what kind of car they are driving. They could be in either of two states: New York or Connecticut. What are the steps do they take to find them?

Public Comments

1. Don't feel bad, 95% of the people here know nothing about police work. They just think that they do because they never miss an episode of CSI.
2. put out am all points bulletin,.....all law enforcement agencies are contacted,.....for a, b.o.l.o. (be on the look out),.....
3. The police take a look at the driver's licenses and car registration, and check to see if the car is parked at any of those addresses. They take a look at where the people are employed and check for the car there. They interview the people at those addresses, and see if anyone has seen or heard the two. Then the FBI arrives on the scene. The Special Agent holds a news conference, declares that he's in charge, and generally gives orders, and doesn't actually *do* anything. The FBI is not really a law enforcement agency; they specialize in getting publicity so they can get bigger budgets which allow them to get more publicity. But none of this really works very well. They check out the addresses, because that's something they can do, but they don't have the manpower and the budgets to throw up roadblocks on every street and highway across two states. Instead, they wait until the two criminals get stopped for speeding, or driving left of center, or get a parking ticket, or they get a phone call from Ernie at Ajax Liquors, who thinks he saw them. It's not rocket science. It's a lot of plodding. That's not a criticism of the cops; it's an analysis of the task. Cops that do the job right are either incredibly lucky, or incredibly hard workers, and I salute them. Other cops take short-cuts, and they end up fabricating evidence that sometimes sends the wrong person to prison. And the way my luck runs, it's a wonder some lazy cop hasn't yet tried to railroad me. That's why I think the Bill of Rights is so important.
4. It depends on what they did and how much the police want to catch them, in other words how much news is about the criminals. The police will go to places where they work or family members live. The car and description of the criminals is placed on police bulletins, so that if the car is seen or stopped for a violation the dispatcher will tell the officers that a warrant or hold is on these people. Police don't look for criminals unless it is on the t.v. regularly.