I have a question. Not a cop bashing thread, so don't even start with the "How's the dog?" or other JBT quips.
Let me set the scene:
Week or so back, a friend had his car parked at the side of the street near a local restaurant. Another vehicle, (impaired driver? drunk? distracted? ) smashes into the back of his Subaru and crushes it all the way to the back seat. Driver of the other vehicle, a stocky young black man, jumps out of his now bashed-in Mazda, in front of a half dozen on-lookers, walks around the accident scene, yells "What the fuck??", jumps back in his car, now streaming vital fluids, and drives off.
Unfortunately for him, he left his front license plate embedded in the rear of the Subaru.
So, St Louis city cops know who he is. He lives in a suburb outside the city in St. Charles. But St Louis police say, "We can't go arrest him, all we can do is wait for him to get pulled over in the city."
St. Charles police apparently don't plan to go by and speak with him either.
Friend had recently downgraded his insurance to liability-only, so his insurance company won't help.
He went downtown to St Louis headquarters where he discussed the situation and that's when he learned that the police had no plans to arrest the Mazda driver. Duty officer said "You're eff'd! You need to start shopping for a new car."
The longer this goes, the better the alibi the Mazda owner can spin -- "That must have been my cousin...Oh that car got stolen and I just never got around to reporting it...It wasn't me..."
My read of Missouri statute is leaving the scene where damage is more than $1000 dollars is a class D felony.
Again, do not turn this into cop bashing thread and get this locked.
What obligation do the police have? Just file a report? Go after the Mazda driver? Just hope he gets pulled over?
What options does my buddy have? He was all fired up for some rough&ready justice and I wouldn't blame him, but *he* could be the one ending up in trouble.
In the meantime, he's going to lawyer-up and have a firmly worded writ delivered by registered mail in hopes of getting some kind of settlement/garnishment moving.
ETA, I don't have the details of license #, may take a couple days. My connecton to this is loaning him the spare car as he sure can't afford $50 a day for a rental...especially with no real hopes of getting reimbursed. Thanks for the input, it sounds like the wheels of justice may be rolling, but it's just going to take some time.