Here is Dallas PD dashboard that can be refreshed daily showing current crime stats. They have their hands full, and little funding and personnel. You are right. We need to support their efforts and look for solutions.
Call history and SMS messages (via the cell phone network, rather than internet based messaging) would be available from the provider. The same is also true for any contact information, though without names (per warrant restrictions). Not sure what the purpose would be to remove the SIM card by a perpetrator other than the mistaken belief that it would hide a connection to them. Law enforcement would be able to get from the phone carriers all the handsets (IMEI number) that SIM card (IMSI number) was associated with and any other SIM cards associated with those handsets. Of course, it is up to law enforcement to actually pursue such information and request it in warrants.
It certainly would, and would reconfirm the Department's commitment to the community.
Totally depends on the situation! If someone dies via ingestion of a toxic substance but drug paraphernalia is found nearby/they have history of use then they'd likely conclude it was self-inflicted/accidental. If someone dies via shot to the head, then forensic professionals can trace the path of the bullet and state if it could have been shot from the person's raised hand in a manner normally consistent with suicide, or if the angle indicates that someone else was responsible. In the case of a hanging death, if the body is fresh they could look for things like self-defense wounds, if the puddle of urine (your bladder often voids in a hanging death) is below the body or elsewhere which could indicate body was moved, and if post-mortem lividity is consistent with the hanging position or might indicate that post-death they were not like that. If only the skeleton remains, then you could check the hyoid bone in the neck; a self-hanging would have the rope right below the jawline, and the hyoid is less likely to be affected. In a strangulation, the middle of the neck is usually targeted and when pressure is applied, the hyoid bone is more apt to break. There would also be environmental signs at a scene like that i.e. does the body look like it was subject to gravity during decomp or like it was laying flat? are shoes/pants under the body like they could have fallen off? and is there a branch or structure above that could support a hanging victim even if the rope is since gone?
Wow, that sounds like something that could have happened to Alan. But then I think about where that opportunity could have happened after he left the gas station?
A well balanced, and thought provoking response post. Whatever is contributing to the spike in crimes, I hope can be combated before the city order further decompensates.
