OT [dba-Tech] How To Search

I don't have any good suggestions but, since it's Friday, have you read "The
Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe? Not really a discussion of search
techniques but more about the philosophy of hiding and searching.
Good luck with the screenplay. Are you writing it for a Movie or Television?

James Barash

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 12:13 AM
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
Subject: [dba-Tech] How To Search

I'm working on a screenplay, and it involves the police searching
various residences, warehouses, etc.

It strikes me that there is probably a course on how to search a
building (house, apartment, warehouse, etc.) that police officers take.
I've tried various combinations in google and come up dry.

One thing that I remember from working on a previous screenplay, a tip
submitted by a "consultant" on the script, is this: when you do a B&E
(break and enter), locate the sock drawer first, because almost everyone
stashes valuables in their socks.

That's the kind of material I need to make this script work. Does anyone
know if the police are taught such a course, "Search Techniques 101",
etc. ?

Without wanting to spill too many beans in public, I once knew a person
who had an aquarium in his living room, equipped with a collapsible
shelf. Should any unwanted intruders (i.e. police) arrive, he could push
a button and said shelf would collapse, unleashing various chemistry
into the aquarium and thereby destroying the contents. Fish included,
but they weren't his priority.

It strikes me, as an ignorant person on this subject, that there are a
few basic ways to stash something (be it guns, coke, kiddie-porn,
whatever) -- it's under something; it's over something; it's inside
something; and it's outside something (i.e. the house).

Does anyone know of a police-type course taught by search experts where
optimized techniques are taught? I suspect this is a convergence of
psychology and "geography", for want of a more narrow word. I really
have no idea how the professionals might go about this. But consider
some affluent alleged perp with say a 5-bedroom house, a triple-car
garage and an acre around it -- and you have to search it... For guns,
for coke, for Ecstasy, for kiddie-porn, for whatever.... How do you
optimize this search?

A) Brute force -- overturn everything systematically, and maybe take a
year.
B) Rule-based -- on advice from seasoned cops, it's likely to be in a
heating register or above a ceiling tile, or in the sock drawer.
C) Informant-based -- you don't go in until you know where to look.

Any ideas, anyone? Are there such cop-courses as "Search Techniques
101"? Can anyone supply leads to sites that provide such info?

Many TIAs,
Arthur

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