Real CID VS Virtual CID

In this post I will also be trying to cover, along with comparisons with real-life CID and police, some issues about law, handling these situations in real life and other factors which I felt while watching various episodes.

First I think it's important to mention that when a show is present in a fictionalized drama format instead of a documentary or coverage form (like Crime Patrol, for example), a significant amount of realistic things have to be dropped, especially if the show is supposed to be suitable for all age groups. Examples of this would be excessive blood, gore, graphic violence and other potentially traumatic scenes like this. However, there needs to be a check regarding how much realism is sacrificed for this purpose, because the remaining parts of the show need to be kept as close to real life as possible. Unfortunately I feel that a large amount of this has been cut too, often being noticeably unrealistic.

So along with the technical points given I'll try to give my opinion about whether the deviation from reality can be considered understandable or not.

Like drilabh mentioned, the structure and organization of the real life CID is drastically different from what we see in the show. The department has wide-spread branches with officers operating under many different ranks and teams divided up for handling different types of cases. An example shown in our show is CID Special Bureau which was supposed to handle older, seemingly solved cases which were reopened several years later (although I don't think this aspect was handled well - the SB team soon began handling mundane cases). Although I can understand that portraying such a huge department isn't possible here if our regular team is to be given prominence, they should've tried to bring this issue up in talks for example. For example the ACP is often under heavy pressure by the higher-ups (here DCP or the DIG as shown in some cases) if a particularly noteworthy case is stuck. It's very unrealistic that the officers (especially such dedicated and able ones) will still not be promoted after over 12 years. From what I know sometimes the department/branch of the officers are changed after the promotions too.

As has been mentioned many times before, CID does not deal with smaller scale cases as is shown in the show. Although this was portrayed more correctly in the older episodes, in the more recent cases we see them dealing with cases of any body found in random places, college students and teens committing crimes and sometimes even normal people approaching them for comparatively smaller things like being stalked etc. Although all these are valid crimes, they are not important enough to be handled by CID. These are handled by the local police, who often contact the higher departments if it gets too tough for them to handle. The types of cases CID are told to handle are much more important, large-scale and threatening like busting widespread drug rackets, checking counterfeit notes or other valuable property like museum artifacts etc., tracking highly dangerous and known killers and smugglers, murders which are extremely complicated and widely highlighted in the media, cases dealing with politicians and VIPs, sometimes even finding information about terrorist organizations. Smaller crimes are pretty much off the CID radar unless something more important about them is discovered and the matter is highlighted enough in the country. For this same reason it isn't really easy for common people to get CID to look into their matters. Also CID is usually summoned after a crime has occurred to proceed with the investigations; they don't usually handle the duties of security etc.

It's unlikely that these cases will be solved in a short time. Usually they span over several months, sometimes extending to years. Most of the procedures we've seen in the show like police dogs, undercover missions, using contacts and spies, planting moles within the enemy ranks etc. are used, but are more complicated and time-consuming. (it's shortened in the show to avoid pacing problems) Also the forensic department is much, much larger with a number of doctors working under seniors in various departments (fingerprinting, DNA analysis, biochemical testing, postmortem etc). As far as I know the main team of officers doesn't work as closely with the doctors as shown (long talks in the lab etc.), usually the talks are done over the phone/Internet and it's only the lab assistants or junior doctors visiting the CID office to hand over results and list of deductions, or sometimes a junior police officer is sent to the lab to retrieve the same; the senior officers generally don't visit the lab unless it's a really serious case. But of course this is understandable in the show for dramatic effect and showing a better sense of camaraderie between all the personnel.

There's also the more technical stuff like fingerprints and minute clues, which are often more tough to find than is depicted on TV. Another important point is how the judiciary system works and problems within the departments themselves. The problems of corruption and bribery in the police and judiciary systems are widely known - and this is how often many cases involving influential people go astray (personally I'd love them to show more cases about these issues). It takes a lot of strong evidence, hard work and time to get a guilty person convicted, and even then it's unlikely he'll get capital punishment which is supposed to be reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases. (And as we've been seeing these days, it's taking many years to send even mass-murdering homicidal terrorists to the gallows).

Through this we come to the depiction of criminals - in a lot of recent episodes we see people trying to kill someone because of very petty and unrealistic reasons, such as being slapped or jealousy over small things. This is very, very rare. For every crime committed, the criminals usually carefully check the risk/reward ratio. Is the goal they are seeking worth the big risk they are taking? They know that crime is severely punished in today's society, and even if they manage to get away using influence etc. it's going to cost them a lot of money and time, and certainly destroy their social image. If their plan fails and the person they're going after attacks back, they are in big trouble. If the police get involved, they'll constantly need to be on the run. If they're stuck in a gunfight with the police, the chances of them being killed or seriously injured are very high.

Therefore any sane person first decides whether it's worth for him to take the risk, and then proceeds to plan how to do it in the safest and quickest way, with minimum danger to himself/herself and trying to keep his name away from the entire thing. This is why murders committed using javelins or poisoned cricket balls, while possibly entertaining on TV, are very unlikely to be used by real-life criminals because they're so risky and unlikely to work. Sending anonymous hired killer(s) after the guy, secretly poisoning him or simply shooting him in the back at some lonely place are examples of more safe and quick options used by criminals. Also the professional and experienced criminals are experts at removing clues, destroying evidence, disposing of bodies and lying to police officers. Amateur ones make more mistakes and are much easier for the police to find (this is incorrectly portrayed in a few episodes where some clearly inexperienced criminals are shown to do their work so "neatly" that it's often on the level of pros. While it's not impossible, it's very unlikely). For these reasons it's very hard to corner a tough criminal determined to escape, and extremely dangerous to physically engage with them longer than necessary, especially if they're armed (unlike what they show Lavanya doing with the knife-wielding criminal in one of the episodes).

There are surely many more points, but these are what prominently came to my mind. If you find any inaccuracies in my post, please feel free to point them out, I'll be much grateful! 😊

Originally posted by: chinnu_manikyam

somebody start the gd please i am an old car with starting trouble....icebreaker in need......

Originally posted by: Shagnika

I can do that only at night....right now, my head is pre-occupied with some rubbish matters.... so trying to cheer myself up with short conversations😃

No mood for a debate right now yaar...excuse me.

Originally posted by: visrom

No mood for a debate right now yaar...excuse me.