40 Questions People Asked When This Former Major Crimes Detective Promised To Answer Them
Interview With AuthorHow much do you know about what it’s like to be a detective? And we’re not talking about what you’ve learned from watching Law & Order, Psych or True Detective. Have you ever had the chance to actually speak to people in the field and hear about real cases they’ve solved?
Well, if you’re fascinated by the wild world of solving crimes, you’re in for a treat, pandas. A retired major crimes detective recently hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit and revealed some of the juiciest details about their former line of work. Below, you’ll find the responses they had to curious readers’ questions, as well as a conversation with the post’s author himself.

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Shoot, then you can commit the crime first, don't even have to wait.
Load More Replies...And if you've already committed the crime and had enough money to get off, or weaseled your way out, they'll still take you!! Murders, rapists, pedos, thieves--oh yes, especially the thieves--you're gold. Illustrious members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse, fraud, kiting checks, a*****t, d**g use and selling, shoplifting, various financial violations--tax fraud, fiddling the stock market, and outright theft. They have credit reports so bad they can't qualify for a credit card, are current defendants in lawsuits, declared bankruptcy, and have run at least one if not multiple businesses into the ground. Never mind how many were stopped for drunk driving, and either bought their way out of it but released after they claimed Congressional immunity. The question isn't how many of them have dirt in their background, but how many are clean! (Or just haven't had time to figure out they are untouchable.) Great pay, fantastic vacations, retirement, the best insurance. What's not to like?
To be fair it's not hard to be smarter than those who have been leading the US. 🤷♀️ And yes, I'm American.
"smart enough to rip off the united states"... That's a popular rhetoric with the USA about every nation this year.
All police officers need this attitude. This one of our own bs is a slide into the depths of corruption
Yep. I don't subscribe to acab exactly, but I'm definitely on the side of most cops are bastards. Even the ones who aren't bastards directly are bastards because they support and refuse to call put the true bastards among them.
Load More Replies...To find out even more about this topic, we got in touch with the post's author, Reddit user InevitableEstimate69. He was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and discuss what inspired him to start this conversation.
"I'm not an avid Reddit user, I just stumbled across the AMA section and saw some of the posts," the author shared. "I said to myself, '[Darn], I have cooler stories than these!'"
I was nearby when the Universal Crime Reporting system was implemented. The UCRs were virtually designed to give control of the crime stats to the local police, who had an inherent conflict of interest.
Covid stats were skewed by unscrupulous organizations and agencies seeking to get their greedy hands on more Covid grant money during the height of the pandemic. So kind of similar, but nothing new. Someone is ALWAYS skewing statistics and/or misrepresenting them to further whatever agenda they may have at the moment.
Load More Replies...If he's smart, he'll quietly let some mischief slide and only intervene to help the kids stay safe and grow into good adults.
Load More Replies...We also asked the OP if he was surprised by how much interest was shown in his post.
"Yes and no," he says. "I know True Crime and Law Enforcement shows are popular. I don't know why I was asked so many times what shows I liked to watch, though."
He also revealed that he didn't spill anything that was supposed to be kept secret. "I suppose it would have been frowned upon to share some case details while they were active, but they're all closed now. I was careful not to reveal sources and methods."
"Nobody drinks like a cop." I've observed for decades and found this to be true.
I dunno 3 years in Healthcare and I can tell ya nurses doctors and care aides can hold their own drinking with d**n near anyone. Except roofers. Roofers are a whole different level.
Load More Replies...How did the parents not notice the injury quicker? What were they doing hiring another babysitter so soon? So many questions I have.
I would like that addressed as well, I can only "assume" that a career in child care for a man might have other motives than salary.
Load More Replies...I'm confused. You said that the "jury bought it (in reference to the defense's claim that the 2nd baby sitter could have caused the injuries)," but you also said the "case was dismissed." If the case was dismissed, the jury would never have had the chance to decide if they "bought" it or not, because the case would have never been heard by a jury. A dismissal is not the same as an acquittal. And, if it was dismissed due to the fact that the 2nd babysitter was never interviewed, why did the prosecution not go talk to baby sitter #2 and then refile charges? If the case was dismissed, then recharging him would not qualify as double jeopardy..
Perhaps it went to a Grand Jury to determine if it would go to trial?
Load More Replies...Compare this with the claim in his intro that he has a 100% conviction rate ?
What he said was he/taskforce had a 100% sexu@l offender registration rate when he led a child predator unit. Nothing about a 100% conviction rate. Read carefully before putting words in people's mouths.
Load More Replies...Finally, we asked the author if this trip down memory lane made him miss being a detective. "I already miss it every day," he admitted. "However, it is definitely not good for family life."
Bull might have been chasing you because you were running. Some of them are just really bigs dogs. Very playful but still as dangerous as hell.
No. I think there is only so long people **should ** work in child investigations so it doesn't ruin them completely. And mostly before they have kids so it affects them, and their house a little less,, rawly. A friend of mine was a forensics IT guy and what he used to have to trawl for, find and assess was traumatic. They have mandated therapy in work time.
Children need to know that adults have set these boundaries, even if they then transgress them. This shows my age, but the example that brought it home to me is that there is a HUGE difference between a school banning smoking behind the bike sheds but knowing that there are kids sneaking out there because it is impossible to stop, and the school allowing smoking behind the bike sheds and the teachers joining them. The former and latter feel very, very different to the pupils of that school, even if the amount of smoking going on is the same.
Lived in an area with a lot of strict xtian families. Kids were under a heavy thumb growing up. When they hit HS and got a taste of freedom they were usually the ones who went wild.
I know from my mom’s family in semi-rural and small town South Carolina, there were always stories about child rapes, other child abuse, missing kids, etc. Very few of these were ever brought to justice.. in fact, prior to the sixties, crimes against children were kept pretty quiet
not even 0 to 100, more like 0 to 100000000000000000
Load More Replies...0% i find that incredibly hard to believe. Even the littlest most rinky d**k towns in my area have at least a few unsolved murders.
I think the matter is that the people who get away with crimes do so because they don't get the unbroken focus of a team of investigators. The whole world imagines that US police go out randomly killing black people, or that we're locking up tens of thousands of black people for nothing. The real racism is that the elites don't give a rat's a*s when a black person gets killed... unless they can use it to stoke hatred. People throw out stats like, "Blacks make up 14% of the population, but 27% of the people on death row!" Well, they make up 58% of the murderers, so 27% is disproportionately LOW, and the antipathy towards the police is why they also make up 54% of the murder victims: the killers of black people usually get away with it.
Load More Replies...Again, this guy's kids are going to have trouble pulling anything over on him. I was once able to convince my dad he hadn't seen me skipping school, when it WAS me that he drove past. 😂 I suspect this father would know I was lying.
I’m sure your father DID know it was you, but decided to not push it.
Load More Replies...I think this probably happens more than we want to know. Frankly I'd be OK if my cats ate my body when they were starving. 🤷♀️
Shoot, my cat just told me that he wouldn't even have to be starving. Such a cute furry monster.
Load More Replies...My dad is a retired major crimes detective. I could pretty much ask any question. Once I wanted to know what his saddest case was. He answered: "There are two standing out. One night, in 1980-ies G.D.R., we had a missing child. Imagine, I had to search the basement section of an huge apartment block for the four year old boy, at 3a.m. We found him in a cellar, hidden in a carpet, dead. Meanwhile you and your twin brother, both 4, were sleeping merrily in your warm beds."// And the second case: in a village, a family with six kids. Dad was not in the picture anymore, Mom died unexpectedly. Eldest daughter, then 19, stepped up as surrogate-Mom-on- duty so that her minor siblings didn't have to go into foster care, neighbours helped. She did a magnificent job, until she was mùrdered after her first disco night ever. 🥹"We found her, thrown away like garbage, in an irrigation trench. She was so kind and beautiful we dubbed i" The Snow-white case". We never found the mùrderer and the cries of her sibliings still haunt me."
Are you owned by a cat,by chance😁? I had a few of those looks my d**n self
Load More Replies...I work in a privately owned development. We recently had a resident pass away and he laid in his house for a couple weeks before anyone found him. His cats had been feasting on him the whole time. The smell in that house is something that stays with you for a long time.
I recommend the read Murderland. It talks about how the,dad and copper contamination in the PNW led to the rise in the number of serial killers.
What do you mean? Lead and copper contamination making people crazy?
Load More Replies...This technique is used in sales and is useful in everyday life too - basically, whoever breaks the silence first, loses. If you ask someone a question you know they're not going to like ie. Are you cheating?, ask the question then SHUT THE F*CK UP. Do not fill the silence by babbling on, just stay quiet and keep looking straight at them; few people can resist speaking under those circumstances so just let them speak & dig their own grave
I would be in favor of capital punishment for narcotrafficers, child ab.u.sers, serial kil1ers and other heavy crimes.
I would be in favour as well, the trouble is when someone is found innocent afterwards. That to me is unforgivable. How do you repair a miscarriage of justice like that? That’s my major problem with it.
Load More Replies...Working for the police absolutely ruined cop shows for me, and I was only civilian staff. Apart from 'The thin blue line' with Rowan Atkinson 😂
As someone that has worked in care I struggle to even watch medical dramas because the behaviour of the medical staff is **so** appalling - carrying on a very personal conversation with a colleague while walking up to a patient and starting to touch their body to do blood pressure tests etc?! How dare you treat someone like meat like that, not introducing yourself, not explaining while you are there, not asking permission before touching them, let alone subjecting them to hearing your personal gripes about a relationship with someone, as if they are nothing but equipment. I can completely imagine that police dramas are unwatcheable to any half decent cop.
WTF is a bearcat?!?!? Also, the nuances required in policing really, really need a human. Literally much of what makes us human and not robots is tied up in good coppering.
A bearcat is an armoured vehicle, basically an inner city tank. Some have battering rams and mounted turret guns. They are used by special operations/SWAT type law enforcement.
Load More Replies...(gasp) a swear got past the BP censorship! Quick! Screenshot it while you can! Screenshot...d0-png.jpg
My dad (the retired crime detective) abhors any crime novels and movies because of their inaccuracies.buuuut there is one film standing out he recommends watching: it shows the immense pressure (time and psychological) the investigators are under: "Es geschah am helllichten Tag" ("It happened on broad daylight) . The black and white thriller from 1958 --> (German version) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9it5je ////And With English subtitles: https://m.ok.ru/video/1883219954356
Seriously, if it’s two words you’re censoring, then split the ***, ffs.
Load More Replies...Part of the rights read to someone being arrested in the UK is ‘it may harm your defence if you do not mention now something you later rely on in court’. That said, I listened to a very interesting series on BBC Sounds about all the steps that happen when you (as in in ‘one’) is arrested, with all professionals walking through each episode, and the police officer said that if you are arrested for something that you absolutely did not do it is 100.% the job of the police to provide the evidence that you did. You do not have to provide one dot of evidence that you did not, so they said to just ‘no comment’ the interview and go home. That was interesting. I wouldn’t though. I know me. I’d be trying too hard to be helpful, LOL.
"can and will be used AGAINST you in a court of law" Emphasis mine.
"Holidays are always domestic disturbance time." That is one of the saddest things I have ever read.
During covid, especially our really long lockdowns, Australia had a lot of anti-domestic violence ads aired, because people were all home together for so long, more dv was occurring. It's the same during holidays. :(
Load More Replies...It's 30 years since I did my police training and tape-recording was just being introduced. TV interviews still bug me. They don't make the right introductions for the tape/video (eg never give the date); at the end they might say "interview terminated" but do t give the required date and time and never sign the tapes and put them in evidence bags. A small thing but it annoys me no end!
i like watching the odd fly on the wall policing series. Interviewing in real life is so calm and run-of-the-mill, and the duty solicitor sits there and makes little notes. Then in a TV series the police are aggressive and allow themselves to get angry and the solicitor is forever having a go at the police officers. I think screenwriters may have to start adapting how they write these screens as we all become more literate as to what is real, while still keeping them tense and engaging (which should be hard!)
In general, I find UK crime shows more accurate, especially the interrogation scenes. Ones like Scott & Bailey and Unforgoten.
My brother was set on becoming a cop from about the time he was 16. He did a bachelor of criminology and then applied straight after. He did the testing and was on to the interview stage where he was asked 'why do you want to become a police officer?' and he couldn't answer it. He decided not to go further, though he did apply for the federal police after. He realised he wanted to be more on the making of laws side, so did a masters of politics and policy making. Afterwards he applied for a lot of graduate positions in that field (including ASIO) but never got anywhere so is working as a manager of a Salvation Army op shop.
I won't say unconstitutional, but I dont like them either. On the face of it, you get stopped and investigated for illegal activities with zero reason to suspect you of doing anything illegal. Add to that if you need to drive through the checkpoint to enter or leave your home (My hubby had to do that because the police set up a multi-day check point outside of his complex,) and that just makes it far worse.
Load More Replies...I watch a lot of body cam shows/videos (watching one now actually) and SO many people talk themselves in to an arrest when really the cop was just going to write them a ticket and send them on their way. Or they flee from a traffic stop and end up in a car chase, which is usually a felony - because their license is suspended or something stupid that would have simply been a ticket. 🙄
This links to another of his replies above - answer the questions then SHUT THE F*CK UP. They will stay silent to let you talk yourself into trouble so don't do it
Load More Replies...If you interact with them and hear them interact with others you can definitely tell that they get the very middle to lower end of the bell curve overall. While making eye contact at the scene of an accident I literally pointed at my car to a cop and said that's my car. He asked for some more information then asked which ones your car. ... This is not an exceptional exchange. Watch body cam videos. It's friggin scary how dumb MANY leos are.
I can understand that. After doing law as a trainee and having a law degree, I hate watching trials on TV!
This was an absolute rollercoaster. Seriously, I felt like I was watching a movie about someone's autobiography with unexpected twists.
This was an absolute rollercoaster. Seriously, I felt like I was watching a movie about someone's autobiography with unexpected twists.
