Why Law Enforcement Won’t Always Help You

As a Private Investigator I hear it all too often from clients and potential clients: “I reported it to the police, and they aren’t doing anything.”  While this might appear to be an opportunity for me to get a new client and another revenue stream; I, often try to explain why it appears the cops aren’t helping.  Many people believe they’re being ignored because of some vast right wing, left wing, illuminati or alien conspiracy.  They often find it hard to accept one of the four main reasons I’m aware of why law enforcement won’t always help.

It’s Just Not a Crime

Law Enforcement is flooded with citizens’ complaints, just as it should be.  Their goal is to protect and serve.  They do their best to do that.  Law Enforcement is not going to step in just because someone made you unhappy or hurt your feelings.  Just because you think, “there ought to be a law”, doesn’t make it so. Take it up with your appropriate elected official.  Personally, I believe there ought to be a finite number of laws.  I wish for every new law that was passed by a legislature, they had to repeal a law that was already on the books.  But that is a topic for a different time.

During my first seven years with the FBI, I worked fraud – bank fraud, securities fraud and general fraud.  For every “good” case we opened, we probably received five cases that should have never been reported to us.  Most of those could have been settled in civil court, where the burden of proof is far less than in criminal court.  A higher burden of proof, necessitates good solid evidence of a crime, and not supposition and theories.  All too often when two opposing sides have a dispute they each rush to law enforcement hoping to get and advantage in settling the dispute.  Police don’t have the time to be your negotiating hammer.  Sue the guy and leave the cops out of it.

It’s a Crime, just not a High Priority

“We have to devote our limited resources to the most significant violations.”  People may scoff at that statement and label it the same old song and dance – but its true.  Though it is personally earth shattering when you’ve been victimized by a crime, the legislature and police may have deemed it to be a misdemeanor offense in the eyes of the greater society.  It’s the felonies that get the resources.

Not all felonies are treated with the same effort.  I was in the FBI both pre and post 9/11.  According to the FBI, I investigated the criminal activity of violent trans-national criminal organizations.  Real people would say I worked gangs.  We were a top priority before 9/11.  Tasked with stopping the violence on our streets and taking back neighborhoods so people could live without fear.  We were rolling in resources.  We had plenty of agents, analysts, weaponry, vehicles, technology, task forces and money.  All we had to do was mention a gang connection to a crime, and we could work it.  FBI life was good.  Then the unspeakable horrors of 9/11 happened, and America’s focus rightfully shifted to protecting us from another possible terrorist attack.

The Dallas office of the FBI went from one squad targeting international terrorism to three.  FBI Headquarters created an intelligence branch out of thin air, and every office started robust intelligence programs of their own.  Sure, the FBI received additional funding, but it wasn’t enough to sustain all our investigations.  Something had to give – gangs and violent crime investigations suddenly weren’t a high priority anymore.  Overnight we had to withdraw from gang task forces we started and quit working on cases we were in the middle of.

My gang squad lost agents and analysts and was ultimately merged with the violent crime squad.  Despite my belief we were abandoning the citizens of north Texas from the close and personal terror of violent crime, the FBI decided its resources were better spent going after the distant terror of Islamic radicals.  I was not in any position then nor now to question that decision.

I had to make do with what I had, and that meant I had to become selective as to what cases I took on.  If a citizen made a report to us about a street gang terrorizing their neighborhood, we would take the information, share it with the local police department and wash our hands of it.  That in a nutshell is how law enforcement works – and why the crime committed against you might not get investigated.

Some Agents and Police are Just Lazy

We all know lazy people.  They can be adorable in their own way, unless you work with them or depend on them.  Law enforcement has its fair share of lazy people.  They’re not prevalent in most agencies, but they’re present.  They can have a negative impact on morale and investigative results. I don’t want to pick on local police departments, so I’ll keep my comments to the FBI.  But you cops know what I’m saying applies to your departments as well.

When I first arrived in Dallas fresh from the FBI Academy, I was raring to go.  I was what the FBI called a “blue flamer”, an agent eager to solve all the world’s problems.  I was assigned to be trained by a seasoned agent.  There is no question that he was a smart and talented agent.  He taught me much of what I know about investigations.

He also taught me a lot of the Bureau’s uncomfortable truths.  One of the first things he said to me was, “Welcome to the best part time job in the world.”  The FBI, like many police departments, gives their agents and detectives freedom to do their job.  We are assigned a gun, badge, car and cases and left to investigate them as we see fit.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved that aspect of the job.  Give me the tools I need, stay out of my way, and I’ll get the bad guy.

My training agent had different ideas and used our investigatory freedom in his own way.  Every morning at work he read the newspaper from cover to cover.  I’d sit at my desk while he and his fellow experienced agents would drink coffee and opine on the problems of the world for a good hour or two.  They’d then start trying to decide where they were going for lunch.

As a new guy, I didn’t rate a car, so I rode with my training agent when we went out to conduct investigations.  In addition to our work, we picked up his dry cleaning, checked on his house, went furniture shopping, bought his kids gifts, shopped for new suits and went to his barber.  His justification for the haircut was an old FBI saying, “Your hair grows on Bureau time doesn’t it?”  When I pushed to do more work his reply was, “Pace yourself, Jimmy.  We’re in this for an entire career.”

It’s another common saying in the FBI that whatever you do, don’t embarrass the Bureau.  Agents knew if you violated that cardinal rule it could cost you your job, or worse, get you transferred to Butte.  This fear gave rise to another popular saying in the FBI, “Big cases – big problems, little cases – little problems, no cases – no problems!”  With those two prevalent thoughts running through some agents’ minds, it was no wonder many chose to stay at their desks instead of being on the streets.

The only way to overcome a lazy detective is to be the squeaky wheel.  Ask for updates on your case.  If the detective isn’t responsive, then you can ask his supervisor what it’ll take to get your case investigated.  There is a right way to do this – be persistent and polite.  Then there is the wrong way as detailed below.

You’re Just an Ass

I believe in the basic goodness of people.  This a guiding doctrine that I employ in my dealing with the rest of the world.  By following that belief along with a healthy dose of forgiveness in my heart, my world is a better place.  I have sat down with countless gang members, drug dealers, murderers and other criminals.  In most of these people I have seen their basic goodness.  However, in a small minority I have seen a void where their heart and conscious should be.  I call those people asses.

Some people are just asses.  People usually don’t like asses, cops included.  Just because a person is an ass doesn’t mean they don’t deserve justice.  Law enforcement will still investigate the crime reported by an ass, but possibly not as well.

I’m not talking about the person who lost their cool under stress.   Every agent, detective and police officer has dealt with the physically and emotionally traumatized victim of a crime.  They can be angry, scared and irrational.  None of that makes them an ass.  Cops don’t mind being yelled at by crime victims, because they know it’s the process a crime victim may need to go through.  I’m talking about the people that are every single day of their life asses.

Cops I worked with had a term when one bad guy killed another bad guy (one ass killing another ass).  They called it misdemeanor murder.  Sure, it may be a crime, but the cops don’t really care because a bad guy (ass #1) is now off the streets.  Their main interest in investigating it is to try to get the other bad guy (ass #2) off the streets as well.

If you’re a victim of a crime and come off as a perpetual ass to the police, they may find every excuse to not move your case along.  They’ll justify that decision because if you’re an ass to the police, then you most likely were an ass to whoever committed a crime against you.  Karma.

This wasn’t meant to be an all-inclusive list of reasons why some crimes appear to not get investigated.  These are just the ones that popped into my head. I didn’t even touch on the prosecutors, and their use of prosecutorial discretion.  Many prosecutors are great trial lawyers and rise to the chance to serve justice.  Then there are others that appear to be afraid of the courtroom and having to prove a case to a jury.

As in all things there are exceptions to every rule, especially to the things I write.  So, if you’re offended by anything here, please forgive me.  Occasionally I can be an ass.