When a homicide happens in a small town in the US how does it unfold? My assumption is that every town in the USA doesn’t have a homicide detective. So who would be assigned to those cases? Is a detective brought in after a certain point? If the person who would usually be in charge of those cases is out of town, who leads the cases until they return?
I’m writing a murder mystery book and I’m doing some research. any information is appreciated, god bless.
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I live in a very small town that had a murder recently. We don’t actually have a police force, we are covered by the county sheriff and they called in the state police for help. Got things taken care of quite neatly and we were all impressed.
Well, “homicide detective” isn’t a special type of human, it’s just a job assignment. Sure, in a big city there are advantages of specialization, but it’s more in areas like gang crime and vice.
In a small police department, the senior detective gets the most important cases, including the once every other year murder.
If a small town has a network news crime, with a dozen people killed, then the local police chief reaches out to the county and state police for assistance. The small force just doesn’t have enough people to pursue all the leads. This is also how scientific specialties are handled. A town of 1000 people doesn’t have a crime lab. Evidence collected by the police goes to a statewide crime lab for analysis. (That’s why real crimes aren’t solved at the pace of TV crimes.)
It’s like a real-life game of Clue, only with less Colonel Mustard and more paperwork. Good luck with your book!
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