5 Things Cop Shows Get Totally Wrong
It’s pretty obvious to anyone who’s ever dealt with real police work, on either side of the case, that cop shows are a bit of a fantasy. Of course, stories about dead-end cases and paperwork aren’t exactly appointment television. Still, a lot of people take parts of police shows that are built for television as gospel, and it can even start to have negative effects on the real-life justice system.
Here are five lies from cop TV that don’t hold up in the real world…
You Have to Wait 24 Hours to Report Someone Missing
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One myth actual investigators would love to see go by the wayside is the time period after someone goes missing before you can report them missing. The most common chestnut is you have to wait 24 hours to report them missing, presumably to cut down on the amount of calls from parents whose teenagers are blasted off Mad Dog 20/20 at some house party.
This rule isn’t just inaccurate, it's completely fictional. The widely held belief that you have to wait is also an active hindrance to the investigation, since 24 hours is ample time for things to be cleaned up and evidence/victims to be moved. If someone you know is missing and there are signs of foul play, you’re perfectly within your rights to voice your fears to the police, regardless of the amount of time that’s elapsed.
Scenes Are Covered in DNA
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On one hand, TV shows’ complete confidence in DNA evidence probably serves as a nice deterrent. The problem is, in practice, DNA evidence isn’t that easy to find, and not always that conclusive. If there’s a puddle of blood or personal fluids at a crime scene, sure, that’ll be an invaluable bit of evidence. The kind of DNA often picked up on television, though — the bits and pieces of skin or hair found on a couch cushion or car seat? That's called “touch DNA,” and it's finicky and largely useless.
The bigger problem: Thanks to these TV shows, juries can suffer from what's aptly named the “CSI effect,” where they're overly confident in DNA evidence, possibly leading to false convictions.
Fingerprints Are Easy to Find
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DNA’s powdery friend, the fingerprint — one with a much longer history, but again, one blown out of proportion. Fingerprint evidence is indeed helpful, but most criminals aren’t eager to squish their thumb up against a plate glass window. Clean fingerprints are rare, and are anything but a guarantee at a crime scene, especially given that they’re usually understandably chaotic.
Oh, and pulling fingerprints off guns? According to a professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri, the contours of a firearm make it particularly difficult to get fingerprints off of them.
You Only Get One Phone Call in Jail
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When someone’s booked and hauled off to the county jail on TV, the next thing they’ll likely ask for is “their phone call.” Always in the singular. This is, apparently, completely made up, and the reality can go two different ways, depending on the police’s mood that day, especially toward you. If you want or need to call someone, you can have as many phone calls as the police see fit to allow. On the flip side, if they’re really not a fan of you? That phone call is a privilege, not a right, so they might not allow you a call at all.
You’ll Be Read Your Miranda Rights at the Moment of Arrest
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“You have the right to remain silent,” yada yada yada. It’s a fun sentence to hear in the closing moments of a TV show, but it doesn’t happen in real life, which is perfectly legal. If you’re not read your rights while up against the cop car, that’s not going to turn into a get-out-of-jail-free card come appeal. You do have to be informed of your rights, but only before being interrogated.
