Right-click and select "Save As" to download this podcast episode to your device.

This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, finding digital evidence, elicitation of detectives and RP statements.

I'm Adam Richardson, and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode number 94 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. This week I'm answering your questions about finding digital evidence when the devices are missing, elicitation of detectives by a mole within the police department and where to believably take a statement from a reporting party. But before we get into that, I need to thank Gold Shield Patrons, Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com, Chrysann, Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli, Craig Kingsman of craigkingsman.com, Lynn Vitale, Marco Carocari of marcocarocari.com, Robert Mendenhall of robertjmendenhall.com, Terry Swan and Rob Kerns of knightsfallpress.com.

​By the way, thanks, Rob, for upping your monthly pledge. I appreciate it. But I want to thank all of them for their support, along with my silver cufflink and coffee club patrons. You can find links to all of the patrons supporting this episode in the show notes at writersdetective.com/94. To learn more about using Patreon to grow your author business, or to support this podcast for as little as $2 per month, check out writersdetective.com/patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

So before we get started, how are you guys holding up? It has been a busy few weeks of craziness around here, and it looks like Tuesdays are going to be the new podcast drop days each week, as I'm now working weekend nights for the foreseeable future. It's been quite a while since I lived like a vampire, but despite the toll it takes on the home life, I have always liked being out and about at night, or at least when it comes to work. Also, I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to the writers of Kern for having me open their yearly writers conference this week, albeit virtually. I wish I'd been there in person, but thank you for that and welcome to the Bureau. So without any further ado, let's get to this week's questions.

Author S.C. Wynne, whom you can find at scwynne.com, and that's S-C-W-Y-N-N-E, asked this in the Writer's Detective Q&A Facebook group. "I have a question. I did a search, but didn't see this anywhere. If the police have a murder victim they suspect met the guy on a dating site, but they don't know which one, would they check every dating site in existence? I find this hard to believe since there are over 1500 sites or something, but I'd like to be accurate. They know the victim's name, but his laptop and phone are missing."

The old proverbial needle in the digital haystack. The investigative steps would start with what the detectives would have access to, and namely the evidence they could find in the murder victim's possession or in his home that could lead them forward. Now in previous episodes and back when I blogged, I talked about a Mincey warrant. M-I-N-C-E-Y. Essentially, this is the search warrant detectives get when they need to search a homicide scene or the location related to the descendant in the homicide case.

So in this case, the detectives would likely get a Mincey warrant for the victim's home. Now, for the sake of argument, let's just say the victim lived alone in an apartment. That Mincey affidavit, meaning the application to the judge asking for the search warrant, is going to ask the judge to approve the search of the apartment for the seizure of specific things, but it will be a laundry list of things that will hopefully be evidence in the crime. Now, the obvious things would be any kind of bodily fluids or fingerprints, hair samples, carpet fibers, that kind of stuff, that could possibly be related to the crime. It's important to note that anything that detectives asked to seize in the warrant need to be justified for in that affidavit...                                                                                                                                                                                          Continue reading...

​Right-click and select "Save As" to download this podcast episode to your device.

​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, minimum staffing, insider trading and texts. I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode number 93 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. And this week I'm answering your questions about what happens when a cop gets injured on duty and needs to go home, who handles the civil and criminal aspects of an insider trading investigation, and what kind of data is available to a detective investigating the homicide of a foreign national? But before we get into that, I need to give shout outs to my gold shield Patreons, Deborah Dunbar from deborahdunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicky Tharp at vickytharp.com, Chrysann, Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli, Craig Kingsman of craigkingsman.com, Lynn Vitale, Marco Carocari of marcocarocari.com, Robert Mendenhall of robertjmendenhall.com and Terri Swann, for their support along with my silver cuff link and coffee club Patreons. You can find links to all of the authors supporting this episode by going to writersdetective.com/93. And to learn more about using Patreon to grow your author business, or to support this podcast, check out writersdetective.com/patreon.

Ryan Elder writes, "Thank you again very much for your podcast. I love it and I find it to be very informative in my writing." Thanks, Ryan, I appreciate that. Ryan says, "I'm writing a screenplay and was wondering if when an officer has to get into a fight on duty and takes a bit of a beating, how much violence has to happen against them before they're chosen to be sent home and someone else would take over? For my story, I want the protagonist detective to have to be forced to get into a fight with a criminal while investigating a case, but I still want them to continue on in the plot after without another detective having to come in and replace him. And similarly, when it comes to the criminal who was in the fight that the detective has arrested, how injured would the criminal have to be to be sent to a clinic or doctor as opposed to being taken to the police station and interrogated? I was wondering if you had any information on situations like that and what would constitute being taken to a doctor or emergency clinic versus not? Thank you very much again for all your advice."

So let's start with your first question, Ryan, the decision on whether the officer wants to go home after the fight is really going to be up to the officer, not the supervisor. No different than if you were working as barista at a coffee shop and someone clocked you, the officer would essentially be on sick leave, just like they came down with an illness in the middle of their shift. Now, whether someone else would take over would depend on a few things, most agencies have a defined minimum staffing level for patrol shifts. Minimum staffing as the name implies is the minimum number of officers that must be working the street for it to be safe... ​                                                                    Continue reading...