Department/assault question

[dogsyear]

To anyone that can help-
Here's the what if I'm working on: Takes place at a bar. A mess of blood is discovered in a bathroom. No body. Marks of a fight/struggle. No witnesses.
Which department would handle this?
How would it be labelled, eg, open homicide, assault, kidnapping, etc?
Would it be categorized as "open?" Inotherwords, if you, an officer, were trying to link two events, or an m.o., where in a database would you find this "assault?" How would it be defined?

Thanks!

[mcsap]

Moved out of the " Technical support " area.

[retdetsgt]

Ask as many people as possible about what happened. If you get nothing, you write an informational report and move on. (It would be classified "Information")

Sometimes people in some bars refuse to cooperate with police and you can't make them. I had an armed robbery call once where all 25 people in the bar claimed to be in one of the two stall bathrooms when it happened.

[scott715us]

Just blood? Was it a bar fight? Nosebleed? Cut arm on stall door? --- no witnesses, no report of assault or any other crime = 10-8

[icu650]

In most cases the bartender would clean the mess up kick out whoever made it or caused it and the police would never be called. However, if the police were called and the amount (volume) of blood was so extraordinary as to warrant further investigation the patrol officer would request investigating detectives and or crime scene. Of course all people would be interviewed, statements taken and evidence collected. Depending on where you are and the department it probably would be listed as a suspicious circumstance or possible assault pending further investigation. It would most likely be closed out after a check with local hospitals, no incoming complaints and no missing persons connected to this issue.

[missouricop]

Here we would call in the Vampire and werewolf hunters. We all carry a wooden stake and a silver bullet,
just in case.

[marinepilot]

Ask as many people as possible about what happened. If you get nothing, you write an informational report and move on. (It would be classified "Information")

+1, that's what would happen at my agency as well.

I once pulled over a car that was acting suspiciously in the area of an alarm going off. When I walked up to the side of the vehicle I noticed blood dripped and streaked all down the drivers side of the vehicle. Then, as I was speaking to the driver, I observed MORE blood all over the steering wheel and dripping down to the floor boards! I asked him out of the car and questioned him about all the blood (which by now I could see was all over the inside of the drivers door and pooling at the drivers feet). All I could get out of him was that he had cut his finger somehow. He showed me the cut, which I believed there was NO WAY could produce that much blood. I ended up calling for Crime Scene to photograph the car and all the blood, and I believe they took samples as well. I also called the registered owner of the car, as well as the people the driver lived with, and couldn't find anything out. The registered owner wasn't missing and neither was anyone else in his close circle of friends. There was no blood on the passenger side or rear seat of the car, just where he was.

Weird, but all I could do at that point was file my information report and forward it up to investigations.

[retdetsgt]

My very first IA complaint was over something similar. I got a call on a woman shooting at a park counselor at a city park. I got there and only a bunch of kids, all under 12 were there. I asked what happened and they told me that the park counselor had accused one of the boys of stealing his car keys and pushed the kid around a little. The kid went home, told his Mama who came back with the family .44 and put a couple or rounds in the ceiling of the building. The counselor was last seen running down the street with the Mama chasing him. We looked all over and couldn't find anyone so I cleared the call and wrote a short special report.

What came next was the Lt. in IA met with the counselor and his supervisor. One of the allegations was that it took me 20 minutes to get there. The Lt made a copy of the dispatch tape and played it for them showing that it took me less than 2. The counselor called the Lt. a liar and it was all over but the tears. What I did or didn't do quickly became immaterial!