Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: policy in Ca. after a police report gvn at scene with endangerment of child

Robert nailed it. When dealing with a child one has to always be suspicious that it may not have happened the way the child remembers it. Any adult, who pulls up in a vehicle and speaks to a child, is always going to be running the risk of being charged with trying to abduct the child for sex. However, after the police obtain the registered owner of the vehicle's name, and then checking to see if the owner (or possibly another person driving the vehicle) is on the sexual offenders list. The police would then have to determine the danger to children, and what the priority of apprehending the driver is. Not every police officer's decision is perfect. I believe that list of names is now on a web site.

Re: policy in Ca. after a police report gvn at scene with endangerment of child

Thanks for your posting. "Normal procedure" for investigating crimes may or may not apply in this situation. At any given time, police may have different priorities (for example a more serious crime may come up), may not have enough evidence to go on, or may need a warrant or to fill out a DMV request form for the information needed to go further.

In many jurisdictions, the police wait until they believe they have as much evidence as they need to make a "prima fascia" case that a crime was committed by the alleged perpetrator. The case then goes to the prosecutor, who reviews it and decides what charges to file against the perpetrator.