How often do cops confront dead bodies?

Question

Aside from car accidents and shootings, I've heard that it is fairly routine for a cop in an average sized city to do get a call about an elderly neighbor who hasn't been heard from. Then it turns out that he or she has passed away of natural causes. Is this routine?

Answer 1

often enough, my dads a cop

Answer 2

Generally speaking they would be the people who normally find them especially an isolated person one person living in a home or apartment.

Answer 3

It's not something you expect every week, but you figure on getting one from time to time. Most of them haven't been dead long. Mail carriers are pretty good about reporting mail piling up when it looks like there should be someone home. When you say "average size city" in the U.S., you're talking about a pretty small town, and generally someone notices something's wrong. The longest I ever had was five months, but that was rural, and the woman chased off visitors and family with a shotgun, and they quit coming around. In this case, the mail carrier was real slow to catch on, but you can't see the house from the box, and people don't always tell the carrier they're moving out.  

Answer 4

Usually people in apartments will report a terrible smell, especially during the summer, Police always know what that means.

Had one during the summer, old man had died in his room with the windows shut, bedroom door shut, no air condition, and his dog was in the room.

Some time went by before we were notified, when we got there and opened the door, the dog had eaten part of the mans head.

Answer 5

My father was a cop. He dealt with this kind of theng about once every 3-4 weeks. But some of the scenes were horrific, and hard to deal with. Especially crashes etc. when they have to deal with body parts.

He ended up leaving the force because of this.

We lived in what would be considered slightly smaller than average town.

Answer 6

Often welfare checks turn into DOA calls.

Pretty much anytime someone dies outside of a hospital, hospice etc, we are called. The initial beat officer will perform a doa investigation alongside the coroner (in my dept). If something looks or feels weird the defectives are called out.

As for how often an individual officer comes across a deadie...depends. My first year out , I only saw one. Whereas in the past month I've had three.

Answer 7

if they are coroners, all the time.

Answer 8

It all depends on the area. A more populated area like a city will have more than some country bumkin town with 5,000 people.

You can certainly call them and say you haven't seen or heard your neigbor for a few days, weeks or whatever and they will file a report and most likely come out and check. They may not go for a punk kid cause they may just be out s******g around but an elderly person who lives alone they will check it out especially if they don't have too much family near by.