As we all know, if your car or home gets broken into while you aren’t there, the cops will come and write down what happened, and that’s about it. They don’t even pretend they will try to find the person who did it, or that you have any chance of seeing your stuff again. (Obviously, there is the problem of no witnesses here, and therefor no description of the perpetrator, but no real effort is made.)
So what happens if you get personally robbed? Does it matter whether you were injured or not? What about those “smash and grabs” people are talking about in the “silly white girl in Compton” thread, where someone smashes your car window and grabs your purse at a stop light? Do they actually look for the guy, or are they too busy writing speeding tickets?
It depends on the place really. I had my stereo stolen out of my car in the middle of the night in the nice part of town. The cop that arrived on the scene was fairly young and after thoroughly checking everything and interviewing about three people in the vicinity (a bum and a couple of gym patrons), he walked up to me and said that they don’t really have any leads but he has time and if I wouldn’t mind if he dusted the car for prints.
He spent about 40 minutes dusting the entire front of my car’s interior and the doors and then cleaning up but he couldn’t lift a single print mine or otherwise because everything was rough textured plastic(inside) or covered with dew(outside).
I’m guessing the same cop would do the same for a mugging time permitting.
Much of it depends on staffing and workload. When I was the victim of an armed robbery, they put me in a patrol car with four officers and drove around the area where I had been robbed. When I identified the robbers, they slammed on the brakes, jumped out of the patrol car, and apprehended the robbers. It was pretty impressive how fast they moved. They seemed to take it very seriously, even though the money involved was inconsequential.
I was a witness to a mugging. The cops took separate statements from the victim, me, and anyone else they could find who saw anything. I don’t know if they ever found the muggers, but they were definitely trying to.
They also specifically asked me if I would be a witness in court should they find the guys who did it.
Violent crime seems to be on the rise here in Toronto, and this mugging involved a gun. Police here are taking gun crimes VERY seriously these days due to the record number of gun-related deaths and crimes last year. I’m sure it’s not as much of a priority in other places, but here it’s a big deal.
As we all know you obviously have a chip on your shoulder and have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t really mean that but I am just trying to answer in the same way you asked the question. If you want serious answers to a question try not to use such loaded language. Of course things aren’t like they are on CSI, sometimes there is no evidence and a case can go no where. That does not mean it is not taken seriously. The two examples you ask about, burglary and robbery are very serious crimes and are taken very seriously. The guy writing the speeding tickets probably is not the guy who is going to investigate the crime. I know in our department for either of these cases the detectives will canvass the neighborhood, check the local (and sometimes not so local) pawn shops find out if the usual suspects were hanging out in the area. I know in the last year we have made a number of good arrests for house burglaries, strong arm robbery and car break-ins. Did every one get solved? No of course not, but everyone was taken seriously.
As for the “too busy writing speeding tickets” dig. Do you know what we get the most citizen complaints about? By far it’s speeding cars. Whenever I am doing radar it is usually because someone complained to the chief or the mayor about cars speeding in their neighborhood.
I was the “victim” of an attempted armed robbery outside of my apartment building in 1999. The perpetrators were two 18 - 20 year old black males in hooded sweatshirts in an area where people don’t wear hooded sweatshirts. They had knives but I had extreme fear and a bad temper and punched one of them suddenly enough to daze them and I took off running as fast as I could. I knew a back entrance with a locking door to the building and ran through it up to my apartment. I was on the phone with 911 within two minutes.
They took it VERY seriously. They dispatched an officer to me right away and deployed forces all over the area immediately as well. It was a good thing they did because they successfully completed three armed robberies within the next hour. The thing was that the police knew who I was talking about. They had just gotten out of prison the month before and were considered extremely dangerous felons. They gave a man permanent brain damage but hitting him over the head with a pipe before their previous convictions along with a whole other host of things.
Some type of special units officer figured out the path they would take to get back to the projects and apprehended them there. The police picked me up in the middle of the night to go to the station and do a lineup which I did successfully. A few months later, I had to meet with the Boston District attorney to talk about conviction strategy, evidence, and testimony. They really wanted these guys to go back to prison and I was happy to oblige. The other victims who got it much worse than I did started refusing to testify for some crappy reason but I am certainly not like that. The DA’s office really wanted to hold on to me and I was in contact with them and the police fairly frequently.
One of the guys plead guilty under the circumstances and was sent back to prison for 3 years without parole. The second one wanted to take his chances at a trial. I moved forty miles away in the meantime and about 2 1/2 years later I was working in the yard when I car pulled up. It was a private investigator for the defense and he wanted me to do a photo lineup and go over my current testimony compared to the original one. I apparently did well enough because a few weeks later, the DA’s office called to thank me saying that the second perpetrator was going to have to plea as well and they were cutting a deal for 5 years in maximum security. He may have gotten out by now but I still get a warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about it.
In short, mugging is a pretty serious offense and both the police and the District attorney can take it very seriously.
My Hubby was robbed at knifepoint in Philadelphia in the late '90s right outside his apartment building. Shaken, he went back inside and called the police. They took a report over the phone and that was the last he ever heard of it.
My apartment was burgled about 13 years ago. Among other things, the perpetrators stole 12 firearms. An officer came over and took my report, but declined to dust for prints on a window that must have been used.
I used to work with another officer for the county and he said that the city police were swamped.
Off subject a little, on subject a little. Just today my wife called to say we had a $386 charge on our credit card from some internet based company out of California, for ATV parts. We do not have an ATV and neither my wife nor I used the credit card.
I called the company and found out the parts were being shipped to an address right down the street, so it fell in my local Sheriffs jurisdiction. I called, they came, and the cop told me that there is very little they can do because I probably left the credit card number laying around!
We had an address (confirmed to be the real address). I have proof. It was just a lazy cop.
When my car was broken into and my stereo was stolen I was informed that
nobody was going to be dispatched to investigate, but there was a website I
could go to to do my own police report (for insurance purposes, etc). 10-15 people in the neighborhood had their cars broken into over a 3 month period.
I guess it just depends on the priorities of your particular police department.
why not the FBI?
Isn’t that wire fraud and a whole raft of other federal charges charges? Mail used to ship fraudulently obtained products is federal, isn’t it? Wherever you are, from California? Interstate stuff is their jurisdiction.
Yes, of course. We even contacted the company the stuff was purchased from to try to save them money by shipping it and having the money taken away from the credit card company.
Another anecdote (since that’s all you’ll get in this thread):
My brother was mugged at gunpoint on the campus of William & Mary a few years back. He gave them his money and then called the cops. From his description they caught the (very amateurish) muggers that night. Got his name in the paper and some campus-wide fame for a little while.
On Tuesday my aunt and uncle were the latest victim of a string of burglaries in her neighborhood. The police came out, took a report, and dusted for fingerprints, but they didn’t get anything since the robbers (isn’t that a fun word?) were wearing gloves. Still they were at the house for several hours, and they’ve been in contact with her since then. I was very impressed, and I think my aunt and uncle feel the same way.
-Lil