As one who is rather fond of detective fiction, both in books and on TV, I really must complain at how many authors write with such extreme inaccuracy as well as in the usual formulaic fashion.
It would help if some knew what 'police procedures' actually are!
The thing that bugs me most is when you have anything from a Chief Inspector to a Superintendent riding around in a car with 'their sergeant' and virtually no others to be seen on a major murder enquiry. Remarkably, they do almost all the door knocking and tedious footwork.
Let me explain. The SIO may well be anything within the range above but any enquiry with fewer than 30 detectives is unlikely and 20 is somewhat improbable.
Constables do all the grunt work and 90% of the interviewing. Sergeants do most of the rest with Detective Inspectors only becoming seriously involved at the formal interviews in police stations.
Those above sergeant only tend to appear at the initial crime scene and to talk to reporters. They may occasionally pop out to gee up the troops but a huge proportion of their work is overseeing the collating of countless amounts of evidence and materials.
They do not attend autopsies as these only take place in other countries and the USA. They do not eagerly attend the post mortems being undertaken in the UK either - it is one real perk of rank!
Another such is that detective sergeants and inspectors do NOT do surveillance.
Chief superintendents do not say, "You've got the rest of the day to arrest the guilty party or you are off the case," because:
a) Murders are always a very long and complex form of investigation.
b) In any case, 'Off the case' is an American expression and, even there, is probably as rare as UK cuckoos in December!
IMHO - even The Bill used to fall into these traps on occasion but was streets ahead of all other sorts of fiction in its portrayals of policework.
My Dad was a copper and The Bill was the only police show he would watch.
I once asked him how real was DI Burnside and he replied,
"He's the living image of every DI I ever worked with!"
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