Posted: 5/10/2013 11:26:28 AM EDT
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? |
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Quoted: I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? File the claim as uninsured. If the cops find the driver, notify the insurance and they'll change it and go after the driver. |
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--Public Service Announcement--
When involved in an automobile accident that was not your fault, start taking video / pictures of everything you can before calling 9-1-1*. These should include the other vehicle license plates, drivers face, any passengers, the overall accident scene, and (if taking video) the drivers reaction and what they have to say. This can be used against them in court (civil or criminal if it goes that far), and can help your insurance company (or lawyer) fight for you. Once you've taken the video that you need and have gotten all of the pertinent facts, follow your states law regarding moving vehicles involved in accidents. For instance in Colorado, if it's a non-injury accident, you are required to move the vehicles from the roadway if at all possible. After you've determined if it's safe to move the vehicles, and that there are no injuries, move them off the roadway so traffic doesn't get all fucked up. Once you've moved the vehicles, then call 9-1-1 or the non-emergency Police number to let them know of the accident. Chances are, several people have already called them report . My priority (if I was involved) would be to document as much as you can before stories change, those at fault flee, the other driver realizes they're claiming fault, and again most importantly, if they flee. 
-SleeperShooter *=If there's injuries and someone else is contacting 9-1-1, provide medical aid if you're able / capable. If not able / capable, take video & pictures as described above. |
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I'd say your chances are pretty good, if they pursue it. The odds of more than one person in your area having that combination of the first three digits and that make/model/color are pretty slim, even if it is a common car. Your only issue is if he painted it a different color than what is indicated on the registration/title. Once they find it, a cursory examination should reveal the damage.
Good luck. I hate hit and run drivers. |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? They should get a short list of cars that match that description and partial plate and there shouldn't be more than one or two that would be likely to be in the area where you were hit... Then all they'd have to do is try to find the car(s) and see which one has damage consistent with the wreck. Should be a slam dunk. If they fail then the only reasonable explanation would be that they didn't make any kind of serious effort. Rattle some cages if that happens, but hopefully it won't. |
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Hit or miss. May be tough with only three digits...no way that I know of to search the registration database without guessing a full plate. Maybe there are some Accurint or TLO users that can go deeper though. Hopefully they have the vehicle in their in-house database.
Clear the roadway if possible and get help coming for any injured. After that, you can also see if the dispatcher will take down plate/driver information. |
| It depends on what city the accident occurred. If we are talking about the BIG cities, I would say your SOL. The officer will just take the report and send it to a detective where it will fall in a pile of other cases. In your smaller departments, they will most likely help. That being said, it's not likely they will find the guy though. Hit and run isn't a very high priority call. |
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My personal experience. Lady ran into my ex and kept driving. LEO showed up, took report, and stated he would track down the person and demand insurance information or he would charge for Hit & Run. Nothing happened. Fast forward a couple of months and I was HIT by person, called 911, witnesses called 911, individual later filed report AGAINST ME so PD was going to charge me (after I had been working with them getting information on the driver). 911 tape from witnesses exonerated me and I was able to get her insurance to admit fault (they did knowing she had been canceled but the accident happened a couple of days before that so they had to suck it up). I insisted charges be filed for filing false police report but it was very difficult to get them to follow thru and I think they cut her a deal.
So, during this, I decide to take matters into my own hands with other Hit & Run case, located person that hit my ex, contacted local PD, they asked driver to come in, she denied accident, and they dropped it since there were no witnesses and said she wasn't required to show them her insurance... Moral of the story, unless this is an injury accident, it is considered a civil matter and many LE in the larger cities do not have the resources to track down alleged incidents. Best advice I give EVERYBODY is to be a good witness, it only takes a few minutes of your time and you'd appreciate if somebody did that for you. I am. Good luck OP. |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? They should get a short list of cars that match that description and partial plate and there shouldn't be more than one or two that would be likely to be in the area where you were hit... Then all they'd have to do is try to find the car(s) and see which one has damage consistent with the wreck. Should be a slam dunk. If they fail then the only reasonable explanation would be that they didn't make any kind of serious effort. Rattle some cages if that happens, but hopefully it won't. 3 digits out of 7 is not a slam dunk. Very difficult. |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? They should get a short list of cars that match that description and partial plate and there shouldn't be more than one or two that would be likely to be in the area where you were hit... Then all they'd have to do is try to find the car(s) and see which one has damage consistent with the wreck. Should be a slam dunk. If they fail then the only reasonable explanation would be that they didn't make any kind of serious effort. Rattle some cages if that happens, but hopefully it won't. 3 digits out of 7 is not a slam dunk. Very difficult. We're talking 3 digits + the make model and color though... and in a specific area. All that should really narrow it down, even if it is a common model and color. |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? They should get a short list of cars that match that description and partial plate and there shouldn't be more than one or two that would be likely to be in the area where you were hit... Then all they'd have to do is try to find the car(s) and see which one has damage consistent with the wreck. Should be a slam dunk. If they fail then the only reasonable explanation would be that they didn't make any kind of serious effort. Rattle some cages if that happens, but hopefully it won't. 3 digits out of 7 is not a slam dunk. Very difficult. We're talking 3 digits + the make model and color though... and in a specific area. All that should really narrow it down, even if it is a common model and color. Still difficult. It may be in a specific area but ever thought about how the car was just passing by? Chances are that the person probably isnt from the area if they had to swerve across 2 lanes to make a turn. Usually people familiar with the area wouldn't have to do that. |
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I wonder if you can offer to go down to the station and look at photos of driver's?
I mean you have the first 3 digits, and the color/make of the vehicle as well as you saw the probable owner of the vehicle... not sure if they have photos tied in the database and an easy way for you to simply click through until you find the correct person/car but your probably SOL.I had a greyish blue gmc/chevy ext cab with his left turn signal on keep going right across 3 lanes as I was about to pull out from a side street.. had I paid attention solely to his left turn signal blinking as he moved right I would have pulled right out in front of him.. almost did.. 65mph into the driver's side..well I'd be seriously hurt at best... pretty idiotic to have the left turn signal on as he switched 3 lanes to go right.. each time he paused for a second or so... wasn't a quick change across all 3.... I was telling someone about it and they said there are about 8 of those in the parking lot... and sure enough there is... in other words there are millions of cars on the road in the major metro areas.. unless you were in a small town/rural area... good luck!!! |
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Thanks for all the replies. It happened in Fort Worth. I spoke to a detective yesterday who told me that the case hadn't been assigned to anyone yet. She then said that she didn't expect that the detective would find the car, because she didn't think he would tie up the computer system at the PD with a vehicle search.  If google doesn't tie up my system with a search of millions of websites, how can a plate search back up their system? I think they're trying to be lazy to convince me to give it up... |
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Thanks for all the replies. It happened in Fort Worth. I spoke to a detective yesterday who told me that the case hadn't been assigned to anyone yet. She then said that she didn't expect that the detective would find the car, because she didn't think he would tie up the computer system at the PD with a vehicle search. If google doesn't tie up my system with a search of millions of websites, how can a plate search back up their system? I think they're trying to be lazy to convince me to give it up...They don't care, that's pretty much the 'just' of it.. they will argue that you have insurance so 'use it'...why do you think I have spent over $5,000 on surveillance equipment? because the police don't solve crimes.. they write tickets and occasionally happen upon a 'bad guy' and catch him if the POLICE did 'their' job then this guy wouldn't likely be charged with murder.. Robbed 8 times in a few years? I do however understand that they may have other cases that involve things of a more 'serious' nature.. but they have always taken a stance of 'you have insurance' for just about everything and they merely 'file a report' perhaps you should spend $400 on a car video camera system that records when you are driving! |
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3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining.
Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. |
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What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Slim to none, be lucky you got an officer out. this if they would have found the guy pretty soon after it happened they would do something, after 24 hours nothing is going to happen |
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I was involved in a hit and run of almost the exact samething, the guy got out and looked around my car and his car, then got in his car and drove off. I called the police while following him, and they told me to pull over and they will send a patrol car to meet me. 2 hours later, and several more calls to 911 no one ever showed up.
Went to the police station the next day and filed a report, gave them the license plate which they matched to the description of the vehicle I gave them. And that was like 5 years ago., not a peep for my tax dollars. |
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What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Slim to none, be lucky you got an officer out. No kidding. It seems lately that fewer departments are dispatching officers to crashes if there are no injuries or road blockage. |
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What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Slim to none, be lucky you got an officer out. No kidding. It seems lately that fewer departments are dispatching officers to crashes if there are no injuries or road blockage. This. I had a 28' truck stolen with a full load of equipment and all I could get out of Houston P.D. was a phone report... 
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What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Slim to none, be lucky you got an officer out. No kidding. It seems lately that fewer departments are dispatching officers to crashes if there are no injuries or road blockage. Is what it is, gotta do more with less now-a-days. DPS has forms online where you can send in your own crash report. |
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Quoted: Yep. A crash is a civil issue, not a criminal one. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Slim to none, be lucky you got an officer out. No kidding. It seems lately that fewer departments are dispatching officers to crashes if there are no injuries or road blockage. Is what it is, gotta do more with less now-a-days. DPS has forms online where you can send in your own crash report.  |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? They should get a short list of cars that match that description and partial plate and there shouldn't be more than one or two that would be likely to be in the area where you were hit... Then all they'd have to do is try to find the car(s) and see which one has damage consistent with the wreck. Should be a slam dunk. If they fail then the only reasonable explanation would be that they didn't make any kind of serious effort. Rattle some cages if that happens, but hopefully it won't. 3 digits out of 7 is not a slam dunk. Very difficult. We're talking 3 digits + the make model and color though... and in a specific area. All that should really narrow it down, even if it is a common model and color. Yeah, I am LE veteren and spent years as a PI. Three out of seven is a crap shoot. Despite what CSI/NCIS et al depict.
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3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. |
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3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Unfortunately, we don't have access to machines that allow us to plug in partial plates, makes models, etc to search the registration database. Full plate or full VIN for me to get a return. That is unless they get lucky and the vehicle is in the agency's in-house database. It sure would be handy though. |
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I was in a wreck yesterday. Idiot swerved across 2 lanes trying to make it into the left turn lane and hit my front fender and wheel. He initially stopped, asked if I was ok, and waited around while I called the cops. When I hung up with them, he got in his car and took off. I got the first 3 digits (out of 7 total) of his license plate, and make/model/color. A cop came out and took a statement and wrote up a hit and run report. What are my chances that the detectives will actually be able to find him? Should I wait and see what they find before filing an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance? Just file your insurance, get your car fixed and be thankful nobody was hurt. Even if you have the full plate number, make/model/color of the car and the driver's address and physical description, they won't do anything. I was a victim of a hit and run (other driver hit my Jeep from behind) and, long story short, I chased him down. Gave all the info to Austin PD, including the info from another driver who was a witness, and the most that came out of it was a call from their office about a year later. By then, it was pointless in my book. |
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Quoted: Quoted: *snip* And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. This is the biggest reason I want something to be done about it. He was swerving all over the freeway after he took off, like he was racing to get away before the cops got there. And it was raining. He could have caused some serious harm. |
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Quoted: Quoted: 3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Also, it was one of the new ugly plates that's all black with the DNA helix in the center. From watching other cars over the past few days, the last 4 digits on those plates all seem to be numbers with no letters. That should reduce the number of possible matches immensely. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Unfortunately, we don't have access to machines that allow us to plug in partial plates, makes models, etc to search the registration database. Full plate or full VIN for me to get a return. That is unless they get lucky and the vehicle is in the agency's in-house database. It sure would be handy though. So who does? You can't tell me that if someone was run over and killed, and all they had to go on was make/model/color and 3/7 digits, they would be totally incapable of doing anything. Someone between LE and DPS has to have the ability to search based on partial records and get a list of matches. FFS, I can search my company's email list that way using MS Outlook. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Also, it was one of the new ugly plates that's all black with the DNA helix in the center. From watching other cars over the past few days, the last 4 digits on those plates all seem to be numbers with no letters. That should reduce the number of possible matches immensely. That cuts the whole plate-space to 10,000 instead of the 1,500,000 originally assumed. Then cut out the unused portion of the space. Then cut out everything not the same make/model/color. It seems to me that if FWPD gave a shit, it should take no more than about 2 man-hours to run the available info, generate a list of matches in the DFW area, and get a local beat cop to go drive by each house looking for a matching car with body damage and the right color paint transferred at the right spot. OP says the guy got out of the car to start with, so she should be able to identify him. At least I can feel safe knowing that I'll be ticketed for jay-walking if I have to park in the lot across the street from work, while an uninsured reckless driver gets away with a hit and run.  |
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3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Unfortunately, we don't have access to machines that allow us to plug in partial plates, makes models, etc to search the registration database. Full plate or full VIN for me to get a return. That is unless they get lucky and the vehicle is in the agency's in-house database. It sure would be handy though. So who does? You can't tell me that if someone was run over and killed, and all they had to go on was make/model/color and 3/7 digits, they would be totally incapable of doing anything. Someone between LE and DPS has to have the ability to search based on partial records and get a list of matches. FFS, I can search my company's email list that way using MS Outlook. You can do it. It's called an off-line search. It takes awhile and you will get the phone book but you can get there. It's going to be a lot of work so then it becomes prioritization of assets. If it's a murder then all the stops get pulled out and the plate would probably get tracked down. This isn't 100% since there are a lot of variables to consider, like are the three digits the OP reported the correct ones and are they in the correct order? Again, if it's a murder or other very serious crime then the leads will be followed. In this case, FWPD has, I think, about 6 Detectives in their Traffic Investigation Unit. Their primary responsibility is investigating fatality traffic accidents which take a considerable amount of time. They also have the job of filing all DWI and DWLI (Driving While License Suspended) arrests. This is largely a paperwork shuffle without a lot of actual investigation required but it's time consuming and it's a priority because once the case is accepted by the DA then the County Sheriff takes the prisoner and they pay the bill for housing him. Hit and run accidents end up being the lowest priority and they get worked when the Detectives have free time. They ones with complete plates will get a higher priority since they are more easily solved. It sucks but it's reality. I response to one of the other posters, I too think that tracking down reckless drivers should be more of a priority than writing speeding tickets. However, the Detectives working the OP's case aren't out writing speeding tickets and they are only working with what they have. |
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*snip* And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. This is the biggest reason I want something to be done about it. He was swerving all over the freeway after he took off, like he was racing to get away before the cops got there. And it was raining. He could have caused some serious harm. I had some kids almost run me over while I was on my bike (they missed me by inches because they wanted to pass me in my OWN lane) so I took a description and went to local PD. I told them someone almost killed me to get an officer to talk to me. When I told him the details, he just smirked and said it only counts if he saw it and I should have followed them and confronted them... After a lengthy discussion, I was finally able to convince him to call the owner of the plate to explain the seriousness but that was a dead end. He did inform me how the system is BROKEN and how they have their hands tied. Heck, I even had another local PD cruiser cut into me so I contacted the chief but ultimately he told me it was none of my business what happened to the offending officer. Sadly, this combined with my previous posts, involve 4 different cities so I don't think this is an isolated incident. Thankfully DPD mostly got my accident report correct after I was finally run over. |
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3 out 7 characters, so 4 remaining. Assuming that there are 25 lettters available (there are no "O" as it easily confusing with a zero) and numbers 0-9, that's 35 total letters or numbers per character. 35^4 = 1,500,625 possible combinations of the remaining 4 characters on the plate. Assuming that you eliminate 99.99% of the possible combinations by eliminating wrong color, wrong make, wrong model, wrong locale, etc, then that's still 150 possibilities to investigate. You know that line you sometimes hear about "Don't you (Cops) have something better to do?" Well, tracking down a needle in a haystack so your insurance company can try to recover their money is not one of those better things they can be doing, as far as my opinion goes. There wouldn't be 150 possibilities to investigate because all the possible combinations of letters wouldn't have been issued. Here in Texas there are maybe, what 20 or 30 million cars total, which is a lot less than the combinations that 7 digits of license plates will cover. According to my math 30 million license plates issued out of 35^7 means we are only actually using 0.004% of the available plate numbers... But that is even high because a large percentage of those 30 million cars still have the old plates with 6 digits or have special plates with different numbers of digits or that could be ruled out if the OP could state the plate was the "common" one. So anyway, figure that 1/2 the cars out there have the common plate with 7 digits... thats 0.002% of the 7 digit space used... Lets give 'em 100x slop... and say 2%... so you take 0.02 x 150 possibilities and you get 3. 3 damned cars they'd have to track down. Even give them the unlikely chance it is a particularly common vehicle and color that doubles that... and 6 cars just doesn't seem like too many. If they are going to make an effort at all. From what people are saying, it doesn't sound like that is the case. And as far as my opinion about how important things are... Tracking down someone crossing over 2 lanes and hitting someone then taking off is a LOT more important than ticketing people for going 10 miles an hour over on the freeway. That's really dangerous and reckless. Next time that guy pulls that move he could very easily kill someone. Unfortunately, we don't have access to machines that allow us to plug in partial plates, makes models, etc to search the registration database. Full plate or full VIN for me to get a return. That is unless they get lucky and the vehicle is in the agency's in-house database. It sure would be handy though. Really? Crappy software then. I could write it better, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to search that way if it was written properly. Searching a database the size of what it would have to be for the criteria of 3 of 7 digits + make, model and color should return results in seconds on today's hardware. |
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You can do it. It's called an off-line search. It takes awhile and you will get the phone book but you can get there. It's going to be a lot of work so then it becomes prioritization of assets. If it's a murder then all the stops get pulled out and the plate would probably get tracked down. This isn't 100% since there are a lot of variables to consider, like are the three digits the OP reported the correct ones and are they in the correct order? Again, if it's a murder or other very serious crime then the leads will be followed. In this case, FWPD has, I think, about 6 Detectives in their Traffic Investigation Unit. Their primary responsibility is investigating fatality traffic accidents which take a considerable amount of time. They also have the job of filing all DWI and DWLI (Driving While License Suspended) arrests. This is largely a paperwork shuffle without a lot of actual investigation required but it's time consuming and it's a priority because once the case is accepted by the DA then the County Sheriff takes the prisoner and they pay the bill for housing him. Hit and run accidents end up being the lowest priority and they get worked when the Detectives have free time. They ones with complete plates will get a higher priority since they are more easily solved. It sucks but it's reality. Fatality accidents should get higher priority, no question there. But it shouldn't be that no bother is even made to work non-fatality hit and runs either. And again, if the software being used doesn't easily allow for a partial plate search then it is suckily written. I can see the database schema and SQL code to solve this problem in my head. It is a dirt simple database 101 problem to solve to make this a matter of seconds to get a short list. The description about "offline searches" sounds like y'all are using computer systems from the 1970s. Makes me wonder if it is written in COBOL or something. I response to one of the other posters, I too think that tracking down reckless drivers should be more of a priority than writing speeding tickets. However, the Detectives working the OP's case aren't out writing speeding tickets and they are only working with what they have. Then they should transfer some officers from the speeding detail to help the detectives. |
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You can do it. It's called an off-line search. It takes awhile and you will get the phone book but you can get there. It's going to be a lot of work so then it becomes prioritization of assets. If it's a murder then all the stops get pulled out and the plate would probably get tracked down. This isn't 100% since there are a lot of variables to consider, like are the three digits the OP reported the correct ones and are they in the correct order? Again, if it's a murder or other very serious crime then the leads will be followed. In this case, FWPD has, I think, about 6 Detectives in their Traffic Investigation Unit. Their primary responsibility is investigating fatality traffic accidents which take a considerable amount of time. They also have the job of filing all DWI and DWLI (Driving While License Suspended) arrests. This is largely a paperwork shuffle without a lot of actual investigation required but it's time consuming and it's a priority because once the case is accepted by the DA then the County Sheriff takes the prisoner and they pay the bill for housing him. Hit and run accidents end up being the lowest priority and they get worked when the Detectives have free time. They ones with complete plates will get a higher priority since they are more easily solved. It sucks but it's reality. Fatality accidents should get higher priority, no question there. But it shouldn't be that no bother is even made to work non-fatality hit and runs either. And again, if the software being used doesn't easily allow for a partial plate search then it is suckily written. I can see the database schema and SQL code to solve this problem in my head. It is a dirt simple database 101 problem to solve to make this a matter of seconds to get a short list. The description about "offline searches" sounds like y'all are using computer systems from the 1970s. Makes me wonder if it is written in COBOL or something. I response to one of the other posters, I too think that tracking down reckless drivers should be more of a priority than writing speeding tickets. However, the Detectives working the OP's case aren't out writing speeding tickets and they are only working with what they have. Then they should transfer some officers from the speeding detail to help the detectives. Apparently you are unfamiliar with how up to date government is regarding technology. We are always at least a generation behind everyone else. The people that buy the software often don't know or don't care what the end user needs and the purchased software is proprietary so you have to go the vendor for an upgrade. Which costs money. I'm not arguing that priorities are out of place in regards to staffing. I'm simply pointing out the reality of the situation. The people doing the work are usually not in a position to allocate resources and the folks that do the allocation of resources have different priorities than the workers. I'm sure the Detectives in Traffic would gladly accept the help. |