When someone dies in an accident like this, how do the police know who to notify, if the person is single and lives alone? Let’s use me as an example… I am a single woman and I live alone. Let’s say I die in a car accident. They look up my car registration and drivers license, and they find my address, but I live alone, so there would be no one home to notify. None of my neighbors know my family or how to contact them. How would they know who to contact to inform them I’m dead? The only thing I can think of is that they could look in my cell phone for “Mom” or “Dad,” or would they just dial random numbers?
Just as in the article above, they let the press know the person’s name from ID found on the body. Then eventually someone who knows the person (or a relative) contacts the police.
Just a guess, but could they do it via your workplace? Wherever I’ve worked, I’ve been asked to fill in a form which includes the details of who to call in case of emergency. If they could track down where you work (via a business card, number in your phone, income tax details), then they could find your next of kin?
Isn’t this a last resort? Certainly in the UK, police wouldn’t release the name of a dead person to the press until they’d informed the relatives. The alternative is deemed grossly insensitive, and once you’ve got the name, you can hunt down people who know the victim without resorting to broadcasting
I would think there would be a lot of ways to get this info.
[ul]
[li]Drivers license name & address – check state records for others living at that same address. Cops probably can do that right on their terminal in the patrol car.[/li][li]Or just phone that address and tell whoever answers the phone.Vehicle License plate – another state record for name & address. Might also give a spouse’s name on the title of the vehicle. Also, if it’s not paid for, it will have the name of the bank/finance company holding the title – their records probably have references given when the loan was taken out.[/li][li]Health insurance card – call them; every health plan asks you to fill out a form listing ‘who to notify in case of emergency’.[/li][li]Work ID card – call the personnel department at work, most have a similar ‘who to notify’ form.[/li][li]Credit cards in their wallet – phone the number on the back of the card – most credit companies have the name & number of a family member or reference given when they applied for the credit card.[/li][li]Cell phone – many people have an ICE (In Case of Emergency) entry in their cell phone directory. Or, as you said, call any number that looks like a person – they presumably know the person, and might know how to contact the family.[/li][li]Government property tax records for their address – if there is a loan on the property, the loan company will likely have info on a family member or reference.[/li][li]Voter registration records – they usually list the names of any other registered voters at the same address.[/li][li]Send a patrol car to the address and ask the neighbors – usually they know something about the family or friends of their neighbor.[/li][li]Wait a few days for a missing-person report to be filed on this person.[/li][/ul]Seems like there are a whole lot of ways before they have to get so desperate as giving out the name and asking relatives to contact the police.
I would assume it’s fairly easy from your ID - your national insurance number is given when you join a GP surgery, and your GP surgery keeps records of your next of kin.
As above, so do most workplaces, who would also be fairly easy to contact through NI number.
Pretty much most of the common sense ways that were mentioned above, particularly t-bonham’s. The first step is usually an in person notification. If the residence is too far for the involved department they call the local department in question and have them do it. Generally if it is as it is happening or right after the family is told to go to the hospital rather than that their family member is dead. For several reasons. Eliminates mistakes when the person is only mostly dead. It happens. The police may know the victim is dead but they didn’t make the pronoucement. It is up to the doctor to explain the circumstances around the pronouncement. Some times detectives have to be called in to dig deeper and find the next of kin.
[li]Cell phone – many people have an ICE (In Case of Emergency) entry in their cell phone directory. Or, as you said, call any number that looks like a person – they presumably know the person, and might know how to contact the family.[/li][/QUOTE]
Even more people have an entry that says “Mom.”
That’s what I was told by an EMS worker they look for first.
Jeez, doesn’t anyone carry an address book anymore? yes, my numbers are in my cellphone, but I also have a backup address book that I keep in my purse. I bet a lot of people still do keep this and it has my emergency contact info in it.
That isn’t standard OP here, as far as I’ve seen. Most of the time the newspapers will say something like “Police are withholding the name pending notification of next of kin.”
Most people are pretty easy to identify. I saw a great documentary on how they handle unidentified deaths. They will go into, say, a room in a flop house where the occupant has died. They fingerprint them, go through their mail and address book and all their paperwork, and try to find a relative to notify. They work very hard at finding the next of kin. Sometimes the next of kin don’t even want anything to do with the deceased’s remains or anything.
Then they cremate them and park 'em on a shelf for a couple years. Then there is a mass burial.
This system actually failed for us about 25 years ago when my grandmother, who was living with my family at the time, didn’t come home after walking to the supermarket for some groceries. It turned out she had been hit by a car in a pedestrian crosswalk. After waiting for her for several hours, my mother grew frantic and started calling local hospitals. At one hospital, the receptionist told her: “Oh, Mrs. X? She’s deceased.” You can imagine my mother’s shock.
I don’t have a next of kin, so if I die it doesn’t matter. And for work, I always just make up a name and throw it on the form.
I am not sure what the legal status of papers withholding names. They certainly are able to find out the information. I assume they just do it out of a niceity rather than a legal requirement.
Just like the shooters as Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, we found out those names of dead, injured and the shooters, on the Internet before the news said anything.
Yeah, I think it’s done so that the family can be informed by the police rather than by reading about it in the newspaper which would be pretty harsh, but the newpapers clearly state that it’s the cops who are keeping the name under wraps, such as in this article which says they have identified the guy, but aren’t saying who he is until his family can be notified.
Just about every wallet I have ever bought came with a little card that you could fill out with your identification and who to contact in case of an emergency.
A more modern version of this is to create an entry in your cellphone called i.c.e - in case of emergency. Many agencies are told to look for it, and to tell as many people as possible so the word spreads.
Seriously? There’s no one you’d want notified when you die? Some stranger will have to decide what to do with your body? Who gets your stuff?
When my brother died (he lived alone and didn’t know his neighbors), the police found his address book and started calling names. Lucky for them, they only had to get to the B’s before finding a relative.
