# Police Procedure towards a Witness



## Riptide (Apr 21, 2019)

My MC found the body of some recently deceased kids. I have her being moved to the precinct and questioned. I figured they'd want her away from the scene to pick her brain. Is that something they do or would they just take her statement there? 

Also, would the detective of the case inform her if someone else was murdered in a similar fashion? I know it's pretty far fetched... they wouldn't make a house call to inform a witness, right? But what if they were trying to elicit a response out of her because they thought she might be a suspect? Would that work as an explanation or should I have her figure it out through more obvious means, like the newspaper, or something?


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## Winston (Apr 22, 2019)

Is your MC a juvenile as well?  If so, there are a bunch of restrictive rules regarding questioning kids.  If there are exigent circumstances, the police have more leeway.  Otherwise, the cops just ask for basic info until a parent and / or legal counsel arrives.  
The cops don't know if the person at the scene is a witness or suspect, and must act with caution to preserve judicial integrity.  
If you haven't seen it, check out "The Making of a Murderer" on Netflix.


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## Underd0g (Apr 22, 2019)

To me, you make the rules. Whatever you can make to sound plausible depending on what kind of writing style you've got going.
They could question her about her alibis for the other crime and she could connect the dots.


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## Riptide (Apr 22, 2019)

Winston said:


> Is your MC a juvenile as well?  If so, there are a bunch of restrictive rules regarding questioning kids.  If there are exigent circumstances, the police have more leeway.  Otherwise, the cops just ask for basic info until a parent and / or legal counsel arrives.
> The cops don't know if the person at the scene is a witness or suspect, and must act with caution to preserve judicial integrity.
> If you haven't seen it, check out "The Making of a Murderer" on Netflix.



She's 20 so no juvenile restrictions. I'll check out film. Sounds interesting.

@Underd0g I didn't even think about the alibis. That could work as a better reason. Yeah! Okay, it's either that or a friend of a friend hearing about it through police scanners.


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## ppsage (Apr 22, 2019)

Judging from true detective tv, patrol is usually first to arrive and securing (and often isolating) persons at the scene is high on their scene securing priorities. If there's time, patrol might start sorting some preliminary statements (who are you and why are you here and do you know anything.) The body finder/reporter will probably be held for detectives to question, but possibly not if it's clear they're probably total happenstance passersbye and the exact time of discovery is certain and they almost certainly don't know anything else. Detectives will likely try to ascertain this from the body finder at the scene. If the detectives aren't completely satisfied, and the causes of this can often be slight and completely innocent, the body finder could very likely be asked to come downtown to help get a better statement. Unless they have serious suspicion and probably even some kind of evidence, the detectives are going to be very cagey at this stage and try to avoid getting on the wrong side of any suspect/witness. Almost everybody, guilty or innocent, seems to go downtown voluntarily that first time. Nearly all the time the first goal of an interview is to get any story from the interviewee that they will swear is true. Doesn't matter how preposterous, the detectives will listen sympathetically. Then a lot of times, the detectives will leave for a strategy session. After that is the time when some detectives might tell some interviewees something about what they already know, if they think it will do the case some good somehow. So, if it does, they might. Lots of real detectives seem to be cleverer than they look.


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