McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

how in the world do you look for someone?

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Aakaakaak:
I don't know if it was shut down for privacy reasons, but I do know people were trying to set up a facial recognition system for criminals in England and the U.S.A. What happens is if a facial recognition system hits on a criminal it alerts local authorities and includes the snapshot. That's how it works in theory.

Credit cards are a very common theme. You take the criminal's credit report and track the usage location of all his credit cards. Normally they get caught when they use a card after the crime. What I haven't seen too often is to pinpoint a criminal to an area because of previous transactions. The ability to geo-track a person's previous locations based on a credit card history is completely viable. For example:

Smiegel goes to lowes and buys a shovel, axe and a tarp using is Master Card. He then goes to a gas station and gets 20 bucks in gas on the same master card. That gas will get him X number of miles if he's using the vehicle he owns as registered with the DMV. You see no more transactions. He's either using cash he already had (can't use an ATM) or holed up somewhere within the driving radius of what the 20 bucks will get him in gas. Crossreference that with the frequently used locations in the driving area and you have hotspots to search. You can also pick up the local video surveillance in those areas. Usually the store owners will volunteer them, but you can also get a court order.

Snowleopard:
If the writer knows the kidnapper - does he know him well enough to know what kind of
fast food or food he likes.  If so - then checking out the local food places to see if anyone has seen
him would be a possibility.  Or food likes or dislikes of victim if kidnapper is capable of being that
compassionate.

Jaeh:

--- Quote from: Snowleopard on August 12, 2010, 07:09:13 AM ---If the writer knows the kidnapper - does he know him well enough to know what kind of
fast food or food he likes.  If so - then checking out the local food places to see if anyone has seen
him would be a possibility.  Or food likes or dislikes of victim if kidnapper is capable of being that
compassionate.

--- End quote ---

...oooooh. there's something in mind I have for this. thanks!


--- Quote from: aakaakaak on August 10, 2010, 04:56:15 PM ---I don't know if it was shut down for privacy reasons, but I do know people were trying to set up a facial recognition system for criminals in England and the U.S.A. What happens is if a facial recognition system hits on a criminal it alerts local authorities and includes the snapshot. That's how it works in theory.

Credit cards are a very common theme. You take the criminal's credit report and track the usage location of all his credit cards. Normally they get caught when they use a card after the crime. What I haven't seen too often is to pinpoint a criminal to an area because of previous transactions. The ability to geo-track a person's previous locations based on a credit card history is completely viable. For example:

Smiegel goes to lowes and buys a shovel, axe and a tarp using is Master Card. He then goes to a gas station and gets 20 bucks in gas on the same master card. That gas will get him X number of miles if he's using the vehicle he owns as registered with the DMV. You see no more transactions. He's either using cash he already had (can't use an ATM) or holed up somewhere within the driving radius of what the 20 bucks will get him in gas. Crossreference that with the frequently used locations in the driving area and you have hotspots to search. You can also pick up the local video surveillance in those areas. Usually the store owners will volunteer them, but you can also get a court order.

--- End quote ---

mmm, this would be an interesting thing to play around with. thanks. :D


--- Quote from: Zolt on August 10, 2010, 03:26:06 AM ---For the police angle, nothing much but the usual: question witnesses, check cctv cameras, profile the kidnapper, track credit cards and cellphones. Getting lost in a modern environment is actually pretty hard nowadays.

Using the internets... sure, but a passive search won't lead you to much, unless your kidnapper somehow posted his location on Facebook. Go active: start a tweeter manhunt - ask everyone to retweet the call for help etc. If the writer is a bit of a celebrity it might reach a lot of people.

If the writer knows the kidnapper, then try to talk to him, get him to reveal something. If by phone have the police track it. If by email or internet chat, get a computer security expert on it.

--- End quote ---

Ah. facebook and twitter. should be useful. xD should be an awesome thing to play around with. thanks guys. :D

Snowleopard:
Glad to have helped.

OZ:
If the main character knew the kidnapper in the past then they could look for people that the kidnapper knew then and ask them who else knew the kidnapper. By following this thread up to current times it is possible that the main character might find acquaintances of the kidnapper that the cops didn't know. If you can get a fairly recent picture of the kidnapper, you can actually canvas if you get the search narrowed down to a small enough area.

If you can get access to property tax records for the kidnapper and his close family members it may give you a clue to where the victim is being held.

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