Punished?

[ThxProtectorParticipant]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I wrote a 2013 story where a person brings to life “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. This young woman, a civilian, sees how her police department are trying to put the clues together to save England’s people. So she goes online and enlists the help of a Canadian mystery unit.

The mystery group is happy to help, but once the chief of police finds out, he’s furious! He can do this on his own and doesn’t need help from other people, especially outsiders. Eventually they do end up teaming up to bring the bad guys to justice and stop the wolf-dog.

But my questions are: 1) Would the police chief get in trouble for not working together with the mystery unit from day one? 2) Would he demoted or punished? And 3) Also would the young woman get a talking to by her department not to do that again without permission?

Thank you.

[Officer BlueKeymaster]

ThxProtector, I’m having some trouble following your post, but I gathered the following:

There’s a crime that police aren’t able to solve. A civilian, who is unaffiliated with law enforcement, goes online and gets help from a group of people on the internet to solve a crime, and the police chief is grumpy because his pride is hurt.

First of all, if this is in England, as mentioned in your post, we know very little about law enforcement outside of the USA.

In America, police chiefs are generally an appointed position who works at the will of a mayor. It would be unusual for a chief to be allowed to be demoted because they are in an appointed position; they generally resign or are fired. It would likely not be a violation of policy to refuse outside help, so discipline is unlikely. However, if the mayor is annoyed by the situation, then they could replace the chief.

You said that the young woman was a civilian (not a police officer) and so the police department would have no authority to tell her not to talk with anybody. If the woman worked for the police department, then she would likely be violating policy if she released confidential information about a case to an outside source, and she could be fired.

[ThxProtectorParticipant]

Hi Officer Blue, thank you so much for answering and I’m sorry you had trouble reading my post. But yes, you basically summed it up in your 2nd paragraph.

Thank you, for some reason, I wasn’t even thinking about the difference between England’s police and ours. I thought they were all the same; this story is the first I’ve used police outside of the US. I don’t know why I figured they all be the same considering each country is ruled differently, but thank you for making me realize that (I feel stupid now).

Oh that’s interesting, thank you. Yes, my character is a civilian and she was the first to call police seeing as her dogs came upon the first body. So she saw a lot and her mother and the chief’s wife are gossipers…I guess that wouldn’t happen right (where the chief’s wife would tell what’s happening in an investigation)? Should I change that part?

Should I change the chief’s attitude? Like I said, they eventually work together, but I don’t want people, who read my stories, to think all police are like this. I always write your profession in a positive light.

Also, I’ve asked this question with police I talk to–long story short, I’m shy with police, professors, etc so I make myself talk to people–am getting better. So I was talking to this one officer and I didn’t mention it was in England, and the officer stated the chief would be in trouble. If you said he wouldn’t, why would that one officer say yes? Just curious.

Sorry for the multiple questions again. :/

[Officer BlueKeymaster]

There’s no reason that the Chief’s wife can’t be a blabber-mouth.

Most police departments are likely to refuse outside civilian help if it may involve sharing confidential details about a case. I don’t see any reason that you would need to change the chief’s attitude.

It’s up the the mayor if the chief gets in trouble, but without a policy violation he’s likely looking at termination or no discipline. Because it’s at the will of the mayor, it could go either way depending on the mayor’s attitude.

[ThxProtectorParticipant]

Oh edit button where have you’ve gone? I meant to say your first paragraph, not 2nd!

Thank you again for answering my questions! I get everything now; I think I may change part of my ending though as I knew when writing it that an experienced gun owner wouldn’t let a novice handle his weapon just to kill the wolf dog (as both police and the guide fire at the same time because the wolf dog lunged at them). The police don’t hand over their weapons, I know that one, the guide does. But he would know better than to do that.

And now I’ve just realized in this post I’ve told you the ending of my story and what the actual animal is. If this story is ever published and you feel like reading it, you have to promise me you won’t remember the ending. 🙂

[Author]

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