What I did was, I called the main number and asked for "community relations" or whatnot. I explained that I was a writer, with some specific questions about a) how homicides were handled, b) who handled them, and c) some verisimilitude questions, such as jargon and slang.

I ended up with Lieutenant Jerry McCarthy, and also with a visit to forensic pathology (I discovered I was cool with the bits in the jars, although the dead guy on the slab with the toe tag didn't thrill me much) and a drivearound.

This was for Still Life With Devils.

But you have also never sounded awkward a day in your life, and I do all the time. And I have no credits that would make anybody think I was anything other than some Emma Zoole death groupie. Still I suspect there is no way around it.Not responsibly anyway...I just wanted to not hold up the writing, but... Could be worse, I am better to talk to than some whack-job who confesses to everything. Slightly.

Erika, they'll be happy to talk to you, and if they aren't, then maybe another city will be more helpful. If they aren't helpful, it's not you, it's them.

What city is the book set in, Erika? Procedures do vary a good deal. I suspect they'll be happy to help you, but if you don't get any response, I can check with my cop ex and see if he has any ideas. He participates in some law enforcement online communities, so he may know someone.

Mine. Phoenix. (I already feel that something Beautiful and Heartfelt that I wrote yesterday may be cut for believability, but I couldn't stop myself from doing it anyway.) We don't have culture or decent public transit, Deena, but we must have bodies up the ying, is all I can figure.
(And I'm not even writing about the...cooperative relationship enjoyed at earlier times in the city's history between police and madams...if they're this rough on a wanna-be Pelecanos, I can't imagine what wanna-be Ellroys must be suffering right now, but they're probably used to it.)

"Homicide--the one thing this country's still good at." Steve Crosetti, a buon anima.

I used to know some cops in Arizona. I'm trying to think what would help. Greg met his cop friends when they came into the library (they read!) and when he bought books from one moonlighting as a gaming store owner.

Maybe the local library could help?

Here are some interesting links you might not have known about:

phoenix crime stats police museum frequencies/codes

ETA: You might also want to check with whomever teaches their police officers, universities, junior college professors. They might know some stuff that would help.

I thought of a great drabble topic last night!

And did I write it down? Ha!

Can I remember it? Double Ha!

Am currently sifting through my brain in the hopes of finding it.

My God, that is monumentally easier than reading FBI crime stats, since I barely made it through statistics...Thank you so much, Deena. I can be so old-school sometimes. But still cynical enough that I wondered what they did to the statistics to make it look like they closed so many more murders in 2000. Political pressure? Nah, surely not. :)(I'm telling ya, separated at birth, or more like by birth...) But sometimes one needs some facts too, to go with the whole "Everybody lies," thing. Whoa, didn't consider how wide precincts are or the possible jurisdictional problems of having cities grow up bordering each other...somehow must address and keep my cast manageable...this novel thing is hard. Now I now longer have to wonder why we don't have a Lehane or Pelecanos already. This town is a fucking mess, is why. All sprawly and complicated. Stupid city. Stupid literary boyfriends giving me delusions. How creepy is this? I don't remember seeing murders for 2003 before, but I know I was only a few bodies off. I guessed and wrote 250, just to not have a space.There were 247.

erika, the SFPD CR people never asked for my stats or credits or anything; I simply said, I'm a writer working on a book about etc and I don't want to fill it with factually wrong crapola. And she immediately put me on to Lt. Jerry.

I expect somebody looked you up, though. But because Deena's google was better than mine, I should be able to find the right people to ask. I should never google when doubting myself, it taints everything. I get uptight and tunnel-visioned...stop asking the right questions. And my publications are nothing to be embarrassed about, if they do look me up. I really have to ditch the high-school-student-doing-research vibe, don't I?(Not that she doesn't deserve help, but I'm not that girl anymore...I've got to act like I believe.)