The media sometimes likes to belittle detectives. They will make disparagingly remarks about them by calling them gumshoe detectives. Somehow the media likes to compare detectives to the Peter Falk character, Sgt. Colombo, if not in his appearance at least in their disorganized approach to solving crimes. Yet, this generalization of detectives is far off target. In my 43 years’ experience as a prosecutor, I have had the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with many detectives. True there are some lazy ones who are going through the motions merely waiting for their retirement. More often I have been impressed that most detectives seem to have a sixth sense for uncovering clues that I totally miss.
This book examines the LAPD North Hollywood Division Detective Bureau on one specific homicide. This case hardly received any media attention since it was a shooting of a non-descript man in a blue-collar part of town. If LAPD didn’t solve this case, no one would have complained and this homicide would have found a home in the Police Cold Case filing cabinet.
What was remarkable about this case was the manner in which the patrol and detective units of LAPD went about their job. The patrol officer who received the radio call of Shots Fired, responded to find a Mercedes in the middle of the street with a man at the wheel with numerous gunshot wounds. It didn’t take the patrol officer long to determine what he had come upon. After checking out the victim he realized this was a homicide that would require the attention of the LAPD detectives.
Within an hour the homicide detectives were on the crime scene. As in most homicides, there was no suspect waiting to turn himself into the police. What amazes me the most about these detectives and the CSI techs is how they know where to start and what to do. It is like a football game. The offense team is on the field and all the players huddle to decide what they are about to do. Here the detectives and CSI staff talk and the lead detectives explains the game plan. Then all the players (detectives and staff) leave the huddle to go to their assigned positions.
When the ball is snapped ever player attempts to do what he has been assigned to do. However, like in every football play nothing goes as planned and everyone has to improvise. This is where the magic comes into play. Each player or in our case each detective has to decide how to confront the new situation they are faced with.
Not to give away the plot of this book, the detectives had to make some deviation to their planned investigation in order to unravel this complex conspiracy of five individuals. The detectives had to flush out a witness who knew something crucial even though she didn’t realize the importance of it.
Also, one of the key pieces of evidence was a piece of trash which one of the officers was smart enough to pick up and show to the detectives. Most people would consider checking out this piece of trash as a big waste of time. The detectives exhibited incredible patients and used astute interrogation techniques to learn what really happened. In this case the CONSPIRACY KILLERS WERE SNARED by a group of LAPD homicide detectives who used the old Sherlock Holmes approach to solve this MURDER.
