Quora Answer: As a Police Officer, What is Something Small That Raises Your Suspicion?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “As a police officer, what is something small, someone can do, that makes you immediately suspicious?”

It is very suspicious when people remember certain things in great detail without being able to explain why.  For example, if you ask the average person what they had for lunch yesterday, they would have to pause and think.  It is the same when you ask what they wore last week, or any random detail of an activity we take for granted.  Our brain does not deem these details important, and they are not immediately recalled.

When somebody is able to give a lot of specific details as a witness, I am immediately suspicious, because there is a likelihood that the story is rehearsed.  Most people do not have that sort of memory.  When we have several witnesses, and they all tend to get very minor details congruent, I would immediately investigate the relationship between them, and look for collusion.

Human witnesses for crimes are extremely unreliable.  They are a useful starting point to gather clues, and point us in the correct direction, but getting a human witness to stand up to cross examination is a great challenge, and often inadequate.  People’s recollection is notoriously unreliable.  When groups of people are able to corroborate specific details, it must be because the details are very significant, or they colluded.