Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26444017-20180623102805/@comment-35973449-20180629212953

Ah hah! So, that's where that came from. I got the feeling that you really understood your main character's job.

It was just a suggestion... The police bit. My husband is a retired police officer. You're right Crimestoppers is just a reporting agency. They assist police in creating an investigation they don't really do much on the solving part... No, they wouldn't have access to criminal case files. Pretty much what the news knows, Crimestoppers know. He would have to know a really, really good hacker or someone who is actually on the case. That person would have to be willing to risk not only their career but jail time.

A couple of things the shows and movies get right and wrong...

There's a difference between a detective and investigator. A detective generally works with the police to feed information. Where as an investigator is someone who actually works on the case in attempts to solve it. My husband was an investigator in the narcotics division.

They're right about the bit where they don't reveal all of the information to the public. Details will be kept out to filter out all the crazies who come in to confess. Speaking of false confessions, it happens a lot more than people think.

Not every state has access to forensics. In some cases, it really does depend on their budget. Hard to swallow but some DNA testing is more reliable than others, the more reliable the results the more it costs. Finger prints aren't as reliable as people think, believe it or not, people share the same finger prints who aren't even related. So, sometimes a case goes unsolved because they ran out of money...

Lie detectors are admissible in court because they're utterly unreliable and were considered a parlour trick by the person that invented them. Psychology is mainly used to get a person to confess or to trick a person into revealing information. This is why you see so much controversy when it comes to kids and confessions.

Oh, and one more thing I think is hilarious that people don't get... Cops can bold face lie their asses off.