Question about police procedure for my screenplay.

[harmonica]

It's a thriller and I want to base it in reality as much as I can. The police go to a hideout where hostages are being held. They rescue the hostages and arrest the bad guys. As they are bringing the hostages out, a car pulls up and a woman tells one of the hostages to get in and that it's urgent.

Now I need to have it so that the hostage can get away from the police temporarily. Would the police allow him to get away and tell him that he better come down to the station to clear everything up, and he promises to come down real soon? I can have it so that the media followed the police and are filming everything, and the police will not want to forcibly subdue a kidnap victim to cooperate on TV.

Plus during the rescue there was some mayhem and innocent bystanders and officers were killed, so I could also have it that the cops who let him go were too mentally preoccupied with all the chaos. But it does look somewhat suspicious that a woman would pull up and no where he was just moments after he was found. She would have had to follow them there. Bottom line is would they?

[Citicop]

It's a thriller and I want to base it in reality as much as I can. The police go to a hideout where hostages are being held. They rescue the hostages and arrest the bad guys. As they are bringing the hostages out, a car pulls up and a woman tells one of the hostages to get in and that it's urgent.

Now I need to have it so that the hostage can get away from the police temporarily. Would the police allow him to get away and tell him that he better come down to the station to clear everything up, and he promises to come down real soon? I can have it so that the media followed the police and are filming everything, and the police will not want to forcibly subdue a kidnap victim to cooperate on TV.

Plus during the rescue there was some mayhem and innocent bystanders and officers were killed, so I could also have it that the cops who let him go were too mentally preoccupied with all the chaos. But it does look somewhat suspicious that a woman would pull up and no where he was just moments after he was found. She would have had to follow them there. Bottom line is would they?

1.) What makes you think the police would want to 'forcibly subdue' the victim of a kidnapping if the media were not there?

2.) If the police just rescued the hostages, why was there no outer perimiter established? You don't just drive up into an active hostage rescue in real life.

3.) (This one is the most important...) You "need to have it so the hostage can get away from the police temporarily." Fine. It's a work of fiction, you may do so.

-Citicop.

[harmonica]

The reason why there is no outer perimeter is because the police had already had one surrounding another place they thought they were suppose to go. One character then takes a bad guy hostage and forces him to take him to the right place, where the hostages are. The cops follow to the right place but have no time to set up a perimeter, since the guy who took the bad guy hostage is causing danger to erupt. How big are these outer perimeters? If there was one, could the woman yell at the hostage from meters away, telling him to come over?

And yes I wasn't confident the police would want to use the media as an excuse not to, but I am looking for possible reasons to let him go.

[Creeker]

The reason why there is no outer perimeter is because the police had already had one surrounding another place they thought they were suppose to go. One character then takes a bad guy hostage and forces him to take him to the right place, where the hostages are. The cops follow to the right place but have no time to set up a perimeter, since the guy who took the bad guy hostage is causing danger to erupt. How big are these outer perimeters? If there was one, could the woman yell at the hostage from meters away, telling him to come over?

And yes I wasn't confident the police would want to use the media as an excuse not to, but I am looking for possible reasons to let him go.

You might want to check out some of John Wayne's very first movies for retreads of ideas.

They were b&w, barely talkies and people of your generation probably haven't seen them. I found the collection in Big Lots for $4.

One that I remember, John Wayne was in a circus. All of his fight scenes took place in open tin lizzy convertibles that ran off of the road while he and the driver were wrestling in the back of the car. It never wrecked, just kept driving thru the desert while they fought.

The girl got kidnapped about 4 times, each time was recaptured, most of the time after the lights went out... yadda, yadda, the whole movie was a near endless loop of the same action, silly plot, the same musical track and climaxes and by the time it was over I had been ready for it to be over for 2 hours.

I'd have never watched it longer than 10 minutes, except that it was the only thing I had to watch with me for 8 hours.

I always liked John Wayne movies, but his very earliest were real stinkers, IMHO.

Sounds like your plot.

[retdetsgt]

I always liked John Wayne movies, but his very earliest were real stinkers, IMHO.

Sounds like your plot.

If you're old enough to remember all the Roy Rogers and other movies made by Republic Pictures, the fight scenes were hilarious. Guys would fight for three minutes and never draw blood. Sometimes, their hats wouldn't even come off. People were nearly always shot in the shoulder.

I also used to love watching them riding their horse at full speed for five minutes, but when they stopped, the horses wouldn't even be breathing hard. Tough horses in Hollywood!

And at least once, the hero would ride along side the bad guy at full gallop, pull him off his horse and beat him with his fists. No injuries ever from the fall....... I guess men were real men back then....

[patchcop]

If you want to be real in your fantasy novel change the scene.

I think in no crime scene in the western hemisphere it will be possible for a non LEO /EMS / Firefighter to come that close to a victim of a crime after a hostage that she/he can tell the victim to jump into the care.

If you don't have done it, look one or two crime movies. In all and any there are the "Police Line - Do not cross" signs at the scenes of crimes. And don't try to cross them at a real scene - just a good tip!

But if you want your protagonist in your novel to do that - well, it's just fiction and no cent more. Do it!