r/policewriting

I’m into writing fanfiction for a game (Not saying which game because it’s kind of embarrassing), and one of my characters is a homicide detective. How do I make him realistic?

His name I can’t spoil because I have (Not many, but some) followers, but he’s a 45-year-old man from that world’s equivalent to Southeast Asia who immigrated to that world’s equivalent of the USA. He’s divorced because he felt his wife wasn’t able to support him emotionally through one of the hardest jobs in the world, and he’s a legitimate good guy who’s very skilled at his job. He works with ghosts and also has a pet bird, Terrence, who he loves very much. I’m looking for how to write him as a man who’s tired, but genuinely dedicated to his career.

I have a question about how arrests and temporary detention worked in the United States in the 1990s. English isn’t my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes.

My story is set in the late 1990s in a fictional U.S. state, but I want the laws and procedures to be roughly comparable to those in Illinois/Chicago or New York.

One of the characters is the deputy director of an academy and a French citizen. He is arrested because he is suspected of murder. The suspicion is based on the fact that he had a possible motive and no alibi—or rather, the person who could have provided his alibi has been killed—and he was the last known person to have seen the victim alive.

However, due to a lack of evidence, he is released three days later. He is actually innocent. My questions are:

- What would the arrest and detention process have looked like in the 1990s?

- Would the police have said something like, “You are under arrest,” or was there a different phrase they would have used in this situation?

- Would uniformed police officers have arrested him, or would detectives have done it?

- Would he have been required to go with them immediately? Would he have been handcuffed?

- Where would they have taken him?

- As mentioned, he is not a U.S. citizen but a French citizen. Would the police have been required to notify the French embassy or consulate in some way?

- How would the situation change if the police also received an anonymous tip claiming that he had a motive for the murder?

Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any help.

My girlfriend and I are writing a screenplay. A veteran officer who is about to retire is a small piece of a much bigger story, but we really want to get the realism down. When director Curry Barker made the film Obsession, he talked about deliberately avoiding the clichés that pull audiences out of a story, and we want to take that same approach.
We want to keep this character believable, so what are the most annoying, unrealistic clichés or procedural errors you see movies constantly use for officers? Which movies get the day to day reality right or wrong, and what minor habits or details set a seasoned veteran apart that films always seem to miss?

Hello! I'm a writer and I need your help. The work I'm currently planning will feature crime solving as a significant plot element. I'd really like to avoid basing my narrative and lore solely on information I've read online or what AI has given me. It's probably also important to clarify that it's an urban fantasy. I'd like to learn more not only about the crime scene process (from the moment a crime is discovered to the paperwork at the very end, with timelines and so on), but also about the atmosphere within the departments. What do I need to know so that even my co-workers, when reading my work, can say, "Oh, just like at our place." Are there any real-life stereotypes? How are the departments structured from the inside? What do the offices look like? Write everything that comes to mind, even the smallest details. I'd be very grateful. Thank you very much in advance!

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Is it legal or illegal in the state of Tennessee for a sitting sheriff to allow a "civilian and original complaint" into the booking area to witness an arrest?