6d ago

How often do thieves (and identity thieves) actually get caught and served justice? Are there actual examples of law enforcement actually doing anything? (Because I think most cops are just lazy)

I'm in the US and honestly I've just kinda just accepted this as a fact of life, cops won't do shit, similar to many developing nations in the world. Anything short of actually someone dying, and cops don't seem to care. Got mugged? Oh well, tough luck buddy, at least you didn't die

How has your experience been? Is your country/area different?

20 comments

Cops are not “just lazy” , dude.
Some are also criminally corrupt.
- Had me in the first half
Police here (Denmark) is seriously understaffed, I don't think they do much unless they see a pattern and suspect it's organized or a repeat offender.
But at least we can call the police without fear of getting shot when they arrive.
- Gooble gobble one of us!
I watch a lot of true crime. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that the cops are just really shitty at anything that isn't just violence, so they rarely do good detective work even when someone gets hurt or killed either. So many cases are ruined by sloppy or negligent detective work that we know about. Since we know that the cops are systematically not doing the detective work for most other crimes, imagine how bad it is for violent crimes and they just don't keep track...
- Most cops don't do detective work because that isn't their job. Most cops do grunt work like tickets, traffic, taking down statements and reports, etc. Detectives do the detective work.
  Even if they did do good work, the prosecutor has to follow through with filing charges. The cop can get all the details but if the prosecutor doesn't think they can win or get a plea then it doesn't even matter what the cop does.
  Which then circles back to why there are so many lazy and corrupt cops. They are only incentivized to do either the easy stuff like writing tickets or the high profile (rich people as victims) stuff because that is what the prosecutor follows up on. The prosecutor doesn't want to hold cops responsible, because that is where the stuff they need for prosecuting people comes from.
  Which is why we have lazy and corrupt cops. The system incentivizes both.
I was burgled. The cops came and looked around. Looked for finger prints. Didn't get anything. The guys who came were polite, at least.
They supposedly caught the guy because he left his wallet at another place he broke into.
I didn't get my stuff back. They didn't even try to help me get my stuff back.
Overall a 3/10 experience.
- Same. Except I kept getting email notifications from my stolen laptop that was asking for password reset for weeks. I had security software installed and it gave gps coordinates each time. Cops didn’t care. Don’t think they caught anybody but most likely had ties to sub contractors working on the property.
- That's way more than I've seen police do for this sort of thing, you got lucky lol
All cops are bad until proven otherwise.
- All cops are bad ~~until proven otherwise.~~
  FTFY
Our house got broken into while we were home. My roommate chased him down the street with a big hunting knife. No way he's coming back after that. I didn't see the need to report it to the police. For whatever that's worth.
Car theft is more likely to be acted on than any other kind of theft, in my experience, but it still has to be convenient for them.
One time my car was stolen, I knew it had only just happened so they were certainly still driving it near my home, and the police just said sorry, we'll let you know if it turns up somewhere. I called back a few minutes later when I remembered that it's on a car share program so I can track the location via GPS - that got them interested, and I stayed on the phone giving updates while it took them only 20 minutes to make an arrest.
The same car got stolen a couple of years later, when I wasn't able to track it live. I located it myself, and they just turned up to do a few minutes of forensics then left.
They're definitely understaffed. When I went to the station to do a report there was only one constable in the building, even though it was a time of day/week when they're extra busy.
Northern Europe. Shots fired in my neighborhood. Cops rolled up a dozen strong, with bulletproof shields, and searched for the shooter for hours.
OTOH: bike stolen. Police said, unless you have the frame number there's nothing we can do. And even if you had, very little. They did take my report though.
I bought a much bigger/harder lock immediately, and it hasn't happened since.
Never been burgled.
Theft really depends on who the victim was or what was stolen. Most the time cops won't do shit, unless there's tons of easy evidence pointing to someone. For Identity theft, it's probably even less common, unless it's a relative or someone you know.
Got scammed on FB marketplace.
I have the account info of the seller, did a police report. Nothing has happened and nothing will happen.
Lesson learned.
- What was the scam?
I'm in EU. In my local state wide news app (states are smaller here than in the US), I see a few thieves get arrested every month in this region. I'd say 2 per month on average. Sometimes on the spot. Other times later. Sometimes just reports about the police still searching for them with helicopters etc.. It's very likely not all cases are reported or news worthy. So the real number is probably much higher.
//edit
The number of reports of thievery in the app without mention they got caught is about 3 times higher. I estimate.
Cops have no reason to put forth effort unless you're at least locally important or someone above leans on them to make their numbers/look like they're doing something.
Also is it "justice" to put someone in jail? Let's say there's no way to return what was stolen (money spent, property sold/destroyed etc). It certainly doesn't stop them from doing more crime, it tends to force them into doing more bc it makes them less hirable and more economically desperate. It doesn't make your situation any better either. It's just more money for the prison companies.
- Also is it “justice” to put someone in jail? Let’s say there’s no way to return what was stolen (money spent, property sold/destroyed etc). It certainly doesn’t stop them from doing more crime
  Tbh I kinda just gave up on trying to have to deal with cops. A driver stole my laptop that he was supposed to deliver, I just simply call the store (BestBuy) and told them I never got it, if the corporations want to deal with that thieving scumbag of a driver, its their problem, I just want my money back (or just chargeback if they refuse to refund), I don't feel like wasting time with cops that will do nothing anyways, especially if the refund happens, then I would technically not be out anything (besides wasting a bunch of time).
  It's BestBuy's fault for using something as sketchy as DoorDash.

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