Is it moral to set a deadline for police to catch a suspect?

[abcdefg]

I often read on newspaper that after a murder(recent case is a random rape murder), some police officers order fellow policeman that there’s a limit of 3(sometimes longer) days to catch a suspect and there’ll be no sleep before the suspect is caught.
combined with the prevalence of torture, I seriously doubt if it ever works.
What do you think?

 

[AlanFromWichita]

abcdefg:

I often read on newspaper that after a murder(recent case is a random rape murder), some police officers order fellow policeman that there’s a limit of 3(sometimes longer) days to catch a suspect and there’ll be no sleep before the suspect is caught.
combined with the prevalence of torture, I seriously doubt if it ever works.
What do you think?

If they are actually depriving the officers of sleep, obviously that could lower their effectiveness. Then again, the media and hence public seems to need to hear this sort of tough talk in tough times, so they can have some hope that something can be done.

As an engineer, I’m an expert at saying “it will be done when it’s done” and managers saying “it will be done on this day.”

They make plans, you try to live within them, and sometimes they don’t go right due to any number of reasons. We cannot control the future, so it is foolish (though common) to become anxious when our attempts thereat don’t work.

Alan

 

[stbruno]

Let the police do their work without putting morality in the question here. I am not a police officer but it stands to reason, the leads in a case are usually stronger in the first few days after the crime is committed…so there is a better chance at catching the perpetrator. However with all the modern technology available…we have been caught up with the CSI programs…you can see how even the coldest clue can catch a criminal if the police pick it up and run with it!

 

[wcknight]

They may officially put an artificial deadline for a case but I doubt if they really stop looking or completely stop investigating these cases.

Unfortunately, more cases come in all the time, and they can not make a concentrated effort beyond some arbitrary point. We see cases solved long after these so-called deadlines, sometimes a year or two or more later. There is no statute of limitation on murder, so I’m sure that they will still follow up new clues if they turn up even years later.

IF they really stopped ALL inquiry into cases after a few days, of course it would be immoral. But I’m sure this not the case.
wc