Thank George W. Bush and his Republican idiots in D.C. for this absolute mess. They're pulling the same stunt as Reagan: starve the states of federal funds, and force the states to make up the shortfalls themselves.
States are broke. Counties and cities are even more broke. And police are told to focus on maximizing income instead of protecting the public.
You already pay them.
Police don't investigate such trivial matters, unless it involves one of their own.
I had an experience some 15 years ago, that set me off on their procedures. While driving at night, I seen a person in an oncoming vehicle, sitting up on the passenger door (window was down of course). The person had a shiny object in their hand, this was later (about 15 seconds later) to be determined to be a bottle. The person whipped the bottle at my car, it bounced off my hood & busted my windshield in two places. I turned around and chased the vehicle to get close enough to get make/model and plate number (I wouldn't do that now days, guess I was a little crazier years ago) .. I made a police report, and the officer pretty much told me, not a darn thing would be done about it. He asked if I wanted to file charges, I said yes. The prosecutor called me in a couple days, told me they couldn't haul a vehicle into court. He said if they investigated it, the owner would probably say they left the keys in the vehicle, and it was taken without their knowledge. I said "if I was in law enforcement, would this be looked into?" The prosecutor told me, they would get someone on it. I asked if the vehicle was used in a robbery, would they look into it. Prosecutor told me yes. I asked why won't they do anything since I'm a taxpayer, and he said "it's too trivial".
There you have it. Just forget about it, no use losing sleep over it.
OK so you talk them into sending out someone to take fingerprints. That cost the taxpayers, including you, how much? So now they have some fingerprints and how many million people that they may match?? What do you suggest next?
I would rather they spend their limited resources where they will protect the most lives and property. It would appear your problem is not it.
BTW about 15 years ago someone did break into our home and they stole some electronic equipment. In this case they did take fingerprints, but that was only because my son thought he knew who they might be. He was right. Some 10 years before that I was woke by some noise. I called the police, they came right out. After checking things out and finding that someone was trying to break in a window and my cat and I moving around scared them off, they stuck around for a while in their car. about ten minutes later someone took off (about 2:00 am) from an alley and make a quick turn with their lights out. The police gave chase and caught them. The got them based on the tools they had, as couple of stop signs and sine stolen property. Most of the time they do a good job, let them do it.
Bullshit! This crap started back with Kennedy, then Johnson, and right up the line with both parties. Get rid of the commie liberal lawyers and judges and you'd have a shot at real justice.
States are broke because they spend the money on crap that makes politicians look good, not what we need. This goes for BOTH parties.
Yeah, because of a little thing called unfunded federal mandates.
Dan seems like he's got issues with people. He's probably a postal worker.
I suspect Dan C. doesn't have a clue what those are.
What police jurisdiction are you in?
I had a situation like this happen once. I was president of a condo association and we had a punk in his 20's show up and move in with his mother and step-dad. He was a real trouble maker, no job, went around intimidating residents, standing outside their units just staring at them, asking them for money, etc. I'd heard complaints from a half dozen people. He'd had confrontations at the pool. So, one day he goes to the pool and the lifeguard asks to see his pool badge, as she does with everyone. He gets in her face and curses her out in front of everyone. She calls the cops, I get informed of it and go over. So, I tell him to go home, he's not using the pool today. Couple days later, I have FU carved in the hood of my car.
So, I called the cops, they came out, took the report. They already knew the punk, he had a long arrest record. But like in this case, they said there was nothing more they could do. I asked about trying for fingerprints, was told wasn;t worth the effort. So, I made a call to the condo association attorney and asked him to call the township business administrator. That same day, I had a cop dusting for prints. And he confirmed what a career criminal this skunk was and that he was dangerous. For the next week, I'd look out and see a cruiser parked on the street in front of my home, randomly for a couple hours at a time, where it had an excellent view of where the punk was living too. Asked them what they were doing and they said they were there to put some heat on the guy, let him know they're watching. I also notified the parents that they were up for violations of the condo rules and regulations by their son and would have to appear at the next hearing. And I hired an off duty cop to attend as well, since I didn;t know if the punk was coming and what trouble he might cause.
Within two weeks, the parents got rid of him, moved him out and shipped him away. Which solved my problem. I think the OP's case is different, because he has no idea who did it and isn't likely to have to have further confrontations or have to deal with the perpetrator. However, if you're not satisfied with what the cops are doing, it's your right to complain to the municipality that employees them, ie the business administrator, mayor, council, etc.
"Speeders and drunk drivers kill people and contribute to many times more the property loss than minor thefts. "
Most people recognize that many speeding tickets are issued more to generate revenues for the government by fleecing the public, than for safety issues. For example, here in NJ, when they raised the speed limit from 55 to 65 on major highways, they doubled the fines for speeding. Think that was done for safety and not to take more hard earned dollars for the political hacks to waste? And if speed kills, how come the safety record of roads like the autobahn are better than many of the roads in the US?
Greetings Dan,
Photo:
Hope this helps, William
Greetings Dan,
Photo:
Hope this helps, William
If someone's fingerprints were inside my car on the metal they braced against while ripping out the back seat there would be no explaining it. If someone with a breakin record left a fingerprint on the outside of the car they might still have some of the stolen goods or someone else's stolen goods. They might even break into another car tonight if someone in plain cloths took the time to watch.
It is not MY FAULT that someone broke into my car and ripped out my back seat to steal tools. I do not have good feelings about attend an open house where someone tells me to use the club but I decided to go anyway in case I was mistaken. I called up the dispatcher who was not aware of anything. The dispatcher transferred me to headquarters where they confirmed that there was not such an open house.
What I would like to go to: Is there a place I can go to learn (without devoting my life to it) crime scene investigation for property crime? Maybe there is a good technical book to read? Perhaps there is a portion of the police training that I should sit in on? A course at the community college, etc, etc?
It takes less time to remove the engraving from a tool than it does to put it on. Thieves either remove the engraving themselves or sell the tools and the new owner grinds it off in a matter of seconds per tool. Engraving tools has not worked to prevent their theft for me in the past.
They pay for the police. They expect them to do their job.
Taking fingerprints? Taking a police report w/o proof of insurance?
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com
useless anyway.
Where do I go to learn how to properly lift prints? I do not believe lifting a most prints is beyond my ability with simple training.
How do I get someone else to match them? Perhaps I should keep prints from all of my tenants on file. I could at least rule out that it was one them as I feel they are the most likely suspects. Is there simple matching software online? It must be quite commonplace now with all the fingerprint (thumb) access devices.
Greetings,
You can sue other people with outrageous success but suing the government doesn't work well in most cases but I am sure you know that. So perhaps I misunderstood what you said? Are you saying I should have a lawyer deal with the police and they would take the report right away?
Thanks, William
And why does one need to have proof of auto insurance to file a theft report for personal property contained in a car in the first place? No state require that a person have theft coverage insurance for an automobile. Plus, coverage for that kind of property is normally found in a homeowner;s policy, not an auto policy.
Unlike the TV crime
thousand of those
use forensics.
You entirely missed the point. The next two sentences in my post are:
"The *detective* who showed up proceeded to go through a long explanation of how the "actors" broke in using a jimmy. Sheesh!"
You cut that, and with no indication that you did so.
To make it as obvious as I possibly can for you, I was using a story to show that the police detective was an incompetent pompous blowhard and that if he couldn't see the obvious, that the door was kicked in, there was no reasonable expectation he would find the burglar, even if he tried.
Likely it's because the training and examinations required to get driver's licenses in Europe are more stringent than those in most U.S. states. Also, you're not comparing apples with apples - I'm sure that the safety record of many U.S. interstate highways is similar to that of the autobahn.
Here's the problem - it isn't very easy to take a fingerprint and match it against any and all fingerprints that might or might not be in police records somewhere. Fingerprints work very well when you have some idea of who the criminal is, and you need to get some proof. They don't work very well at finding the criminal in the first place.
No, it's not. But it isn't the fault of the police either. You can either bitch and whine that the police aren't doing anything, or you can get over it, make your insurance claim, and do what you can to minimize the chances of the problem happening again. For example, you could mark your tools with your driver's license number (this reduces the street value of the tools and makes it more likely you'll recover them if they are stolen). You could get a truck and keep the tools in a secure lockbox in the truck's box. And so on...
No such thing exists. Forensics is a very complicated thing, and it isn't something you can learn from a "dummies" book. Get over it and move on with your life.
Forensics isn't typically taught to police until _after_ they're hired. Unless you're a cop, you're not going to get that kind of training. Even if you had such training, what would you do with it? As I said before, if you don't have a suspect, fingerprints, DNA, hair samples, and all the forensics in the world aren't likely to help you. Especially for a routine theft.
Of course, this reduces the value of the tool.
This is also a lot of work for the thief, who may not want to bother with it - they can always steal somebody else's tools that aren't engraved.
Engraving isn't done to prevent theft - it's done to increase recovery afterward. A side benefit of engraving valuables is that it can reduce the street value of the items.
The bottom line is that if your tools are engraved and you have the serial numbers recorded, the chances of recovering them are much greater than if you don't. If the tools are totally unmarked and you don't know the serial numbers, the chance that you'll ever get them back is basically zero.
You seem to misunderstand what the job of the police really is.
As I've said, this is a stupid waste of time for a minor theft.
Likely this is due to the local legal requirements. Did you ask them why they needed it?
I don't suppose the police having to deal with hundreds or thousands of calls for service from people who are in this country illegally has anything to do with it, do you?
Steve
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