AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY, NOLLE PROSEQUI, AND GPS TRACKING - 095

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transcript:

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​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, areas of responsibility, nolle prosequi and GPS tracking.

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

Welcome to episode number 95 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 how areas of responsibility differ from jurisdiction, the concept of nolle prosequi and what the law says about police using GPS to track suspects. As always, I need to thank my Gold Shield patrons, Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keaton, 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, Terri Swann, and Rob Kerns of knightsfallpress.com 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/95. To learn more about using Patreon to grow your author business, or to support this podcast, check out writersdetective.com/patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

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​This week's first question comes from author L.K. Hill of authorlkhill.com. L.K. Writes, "Hi Adam. Talk jurisdictions to me. I know big cities often have multiple precincts or stations to cover multiple jurisdictions within the city, but is there ever a time when multiple jurisdictions are housed within the same building or station? I'm writing a scenario where one detective realizes his case may be related to another case in a different jurisdiction. Could the cop working in the other jurisdiction be in the same building as the first, or not so much? Number two, what would be the procedure for a scenario like this in terms of, who would work the case? Would the two detectives work together on it, or would one hand it off to the other? And number three, what's the most common way for one detective to realize his case might be part of or related to another open one, a database, an interdepartmental thing, something else. Thanks so much for all your help."

Aha. Hungry for more info on jurisdictions I see. For starters, be sure to check out episodes one, 23 and 77. In episode one, I talked about geographic boundaries being a factor in jurisdiction, like a homicide happening in a federal park. In episode 23, I talked about dual sovereignty, which is when state and federal jurisdictions kind of overlap. And in episode 77, I talked about jurisdiction with respect to more proactive jurisdictions, like a narcotics trafficking case where you follow the suspects wherever the case takes you. And assuming you're still in your home state, your case need only have a nexus to the city or county where you work. Now, getting back to your questions L.K., precincts or stations or divisions aren't the same as true legal jurisdictions, which is a good thing for how you want your story to unfold. Let's use Los Angeles as our example. If I was a detective in the LAPD, I'm not, but let's say that I am. We'd all agree that the jurisdiction of the LAPD is the entire city of Los Angeles, right?..                                                                                                                                                           Continue reading...