Research Requests & Surveys

Hi, I'm a bit further on in my novel (some of you kindly advised me about handing in guns recently for the same story) and I have a question about DNA tests. In my novel, a Russian oligarch dies, apparently of a heart attack, during the night. A woman, Aleksandra, assumed to be a high class call girl, was with him that night, and left about 3am. Forensics take samples of her DNA from the scene. My heroine gets the idea that another Russian woman, Motya, is in fact Aleksandra, and this woman is a Kremlin assassin sent to kill the oligarch. She tentatively suggests this to the police with her reasons for thinking this, and they ask Motya to come in for DNA testing. My q…

Hello, My name is Mark and I am currently writing a crime novel based in South Wales. I am in need of help with information regarding the police and how they operate. To avoid any massive mistakes I want to carry out as much research as I can so I can portray certain events accurately. Is there anyone here who is willing to answer any questions (no matter how dumb they may be! haha) or offer any insights or point me in the right direction where I can receive such help? Thank you for reading, any help is much appreciated. Mark

Hi, I'm writing a thriller dealing with Russian oligarchs in London, and I wondered if any of you could advise... Would it be possible for a character to hand in a pistol, a Baikal IZH-79, plus a hundred rounds of ammunition at a police station without being detained for questioning? I got this advice from a gun club: "It is a widely-held belief that firearms can only be handed in to the police during an amnesty. In fact the police are only too happy for illegally-held firearms to be handed in at any time. The official police attitude is illustrated by the following extract from Suffolk Police's website: Are you worried that you are in possession of something you shou…

Hi all, I wonder if anyone can give me any advice. I am writing a trilogy of horror novels which feature unusual and disturbing crimes. All three novels feature the same protagonists (well, those few who survive that long) but the storylines are unrelated. I was wondering if the police in Britain have any procedures in place for such crimes? To put it into context, the first novel has a sci-fi theme in which a young woman commits brutal murders while showing strength and resilience which are far beyond the human norm. By the end of the novel, these unusual and shocking crimes have captured the nation's attention as you would expect, and I wanted there to be a special uni…

I am currently doing my Master's dissertation and really need all the help I can get, I've set up a survey online about crime and sentencing (which I know is something we all care about) it literally takes 3 minutes to complete. I would appreciate it greatly if you would complete the survey and pass it around to friends and family. It's time to make our opinions count and that's what I hope to do! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sentencing Thanks

Hello, I need some info for the book I'm writing: A police officer is asked to pick up and drive a witness to the police station. He is not in charge of the case. They both like each other. Can the police officer and the witness date? Is the fact they met while the police officer was on duty an issue? Do they have to avoid any kind of relationship until the case is closed? If so, does the police officer have a way to find out when the case is closed given he is not in charge? Thanks for your help

Channel 4 is looking for someone at the top of their professional field with an extraordinary life story to give us an insight into their world for a new documentary. We want to follow someone with an exciting or unusual life for a 24 hour period to show the human face of challenging or interesting work environments. If you know someone like this or think this could be you then please get in touch. Email: hello@thegardenproductions.tv Telephone: Amy – 020 7620 6745

Hello all. I've just written a police procedural, and while the draft is being checked, I wanted to confirm some details for accuracy's sake. Is it OK if I ask a couple of questions here? It's nothing sensitive or classified, you can rest assured on that! B

Hello all, another writer here. I'm currently writing a short story, and it begins with a couple finding a corpse drifting down a river. I've completed a rough draft, but I want to make sure that every detail is perfect. My research has left me with a few questions (okay, a bit more than that - there's eleven, and a few are cheeky two-in-ones). Specifically, this is the situation: the police have been informed, by phone, that a body is in a river. The body is floating, presumed dead by the witnesses. Here are my questions: 1. In the event of this, how many policemen/women would come out to the scene? One, two, more? 2. Would an ambulance come with the police, even…

Hi everybody, I'm trying to do a piece of research into the attitudes of police towards drug policy and politicians as part of my third year criminology dissertation, and it would really help me out if anybody out there could spare a couple of minutes to fill in my brief survey. The link is here, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LCHGJBB , and any responses are sincerely appreciated. Thank you!

Firstly I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Emma and I am an Ex Member of Police Staff having worked for 5 years in a Police Control Room Having worked worked for Police, I have seen the effects of PTSD and Burnout first hand and I believe this is something which is very important and needs to be addressed by emergency service organisations, by completing this survey, you will not only be helping yourself and your collegues, you will also be providing valuable statistics which can be used for future research. Since leaving the force I have retrained as a Psychotherapist and am looking to collate data and evidence around Post Traumatic Stress and Burnout in the Emer…

Hello again, I'm reading this crime story and apparently there is a police procedure that requires filling out the green sheets. Can anyone tell me what it means? Thank you all.

Apologies for a second post, I just need one more on-call participant for my dissertation study and then can delete my posts and stop being a pain! I am currently gathering data for my dissertation looking at on-call work. My project, 'What is the impact of working on-call across professions?' aims to examine the effects of working on-call across professions, with the police force being one of the main categories. As part of my dissertation I have created an on-call questionnaire, which contains general questions about on-call work and its impact on the person. If any of you work on-call (e.g. called into work when at home out of regular shift patterns), please could y…

I've read several crime novels in which a London detective is dispatched to another part of the country to work on a homicide. Does this ever happen in real life, where a police force in one of the counties would request that the investigation be headed up by Met detectives? Say, in a case involving a high profile victim? I'm guessing that some of the smaller forces would have fewer resources and staff to attend to these kind of cases. Is that right? Also, with regard to rank, how long does it take to move up and how old would a typical detective sergeant and detective chief inspector be? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello everyone, I am a computer science student working on a term paper that discusses the issue of Computer Technology in Law Enforcement and i created a survey that will help me collect some statistics about the issue. The reason i chose UK police forces is that i wanted a source of information that is internationally recognized and known for professionalism. I would like to note the Black Rat, forum admin, gave me permission to post the online survey on the forum. Kindly asking you to fill and submit this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHM5dHg4NnZYVWlKaEhMN3ZXWW9POXc6MQ Thank you for you help, much appreciated!! :)