Once You Have Been Charged (Police)

hollydays

dranzer01 wrote: »

saying that, do police officers get commission when they charge someone? successfully prosecute someone? always wondered that

You wondered that?
Really?!!

hollydays

There are some crimes where items can be confiscated and destroyed or sold.

Azari

hollydays wrote: »

There are some crimes where items can be confiscated and destroyed or sold.

Yes, but you generally have to be found guilty of the crime, first!

(Unless you agree - for example when you are cautioned or let off with a warning.)

Azari

Paully232000 wrote: »

they get a yearly salary and that's it.

For each prosecution?

Sounds like a good deal to me. :rotfl:

hollydays

:

Azari wrote: »

Yes, but you generally have to be found guilty of the crime, first!

(Unless you agree - for example when you are cautioned or let off with a warning.)

Yep, the ops friend needs to wait till after the court hearing , and possibly another 28 days or so in case of appeal after that.

paddyrg

I'm guessing the phone and laptop hold, or are thought to hold, evidence of, or relating to the crime. The police can't just 'get what they want' and hand the devices back, as the police don't prosecute, the CPS does, and it needs to demonstrate a chain of evidence (so an alleged criminal can challenge the evidence, and engage their own experts if they feel the need to). Justice is about doing all this out in the open, removing the risk of 'he said/she said', and if that means having to hold onto a few devices in order for a fair trial, it's a small price to pay.

Look at it the other way, how much worse would it be if the police were able to say 'we found illegal pictures on the laptop, then gave it back, I expect they've deleted them now so you'll just have to believe us'. This way actually protects the accused.

trukdiver

paddyrg wrote: »

Look at it the other way, how much worse would it be if the police were able to say 'we found illegal pictures on the laptop, then gave it back, I expect they've deleted them now so you'll just have to believe us'. This way actually protects the accused.

In theory, they could remove the hard drive and return the rest of the laptop. In practice, I think a judge might have difficulty understanding that all the data (i.e. evidence) was on the drive and the rest of the laptop was irrelevant. Remember all the cases were politicians or journalists have smashed entire laptops to get rid of the evidence?

Cycrow

molerat wrote: »

I know someone who had their computer held for 2 years whilst the police "experts" examined it for evidence and kept delaying the case to "investigate further evidence". Alternatively put - we can't find f all but we are going to keep looking because a successful prosecution on this case will give me lots of smarty points.

2 years is nothing. I had my stuff taken for about 4 years. And it didn't even have anything to do with me, just someone else in the house i was living in. They were convicted, went to prison and got back out way before i got my stuff back (which of course was completely obsolete and worthless by then)

paddyrg

trukdiver wrote: »

In theory, they could remove the hard drive and return the rest of the laptop. In practice, I think a judge might have difficulty understanding that all the data (i.e. evidence) was on the drive and the rest of the laptop was irrelevant. Remember all the cases were politicians or journalists have smashed entire laptops to get rid of the evidence?

Yes, it's as if GCHQ think a laptop can catch 'sedition' ;-)

Anyway, totally agree (although harder for phones), but I guess it raises liability questions around damage in removal, etc. I can see why it's easier to just keep the whole device!

lofielectronic

molerat wrote: »

I know someone who had their computer held for 2 years whilst the police "experts" examined it for evidence and kept delaying the case to "investigate further evidence". Alternatively put - we can't find f all but we are going to keep looking because a successful prosecution on this case will give me lots of smarty points.

Its usually a lack of manpower and resources rather than anything quite so planned, most likely it was sat on a shelf for 18 months before someone had the time to look at it.