Re: My Boat Was Stolen Yesterday!! Caught On Tape
If the Tampa police have a good team they should be able to get a licence plate number off that truck.
Sorry, this touched a nerve...
Whether or not a license plate can be "enhanced" to the point of recognition has nothing to do with whether the officers are good or bad. It all comes down to the quality of the original recording. From the angle displayed on the youtube link, the image is already slightly pixelated. No matter what software or hardware you use to zoom in it will further pixelate. The enhancements done on TV shows such as CSI are pure fiction. If the original recording was a very high quality, dense image, then you may get some magnification on the image before pixelation. Again, the video on youtube link does not appear to be of that high of quality.
I am sorry for your loss and I do hope that you are made whole again, by either a fast recovery w/o damage, or a fair insurance settlement.
That being said...from someone who investigates these cases for a living...the chances of recovery are slim, and it has little to do with the quality of the officers that are investigating. It mostly comes down to luck...a friend or neighbor recognizes your boat somewhere...it is found in a suspicious location and police run the HIN through NCIC...someone is arrested in an unrelated crime and rats out this thief to get better treatment...the list goes on...all mostly unrelated to the officer's competence in investigating. The only advantage a truely experienced and competent investigator brings to the table is his connections...both with other area agencies and with intel sources, such as confidential informants and the like. Intel can be valuable in identifying organized theft rings.
I do not have hard stats at this time, but based on my experience, the recovery rate of boats is only about 1%-5% within 90 days, and it drops lower as the time the boat is gone increases. After a year, there is almost no chance. This mainly is due to the nature of the act...there is usually no witnesses, no evidence initially (boat, along with all fingerprints, dna, etc, is gone), and no leads. The real investigation usually does not begin until a recovery is made (boat can be processed for evidence within reason, property owner of recovery location can be questioned, the location can be monitored for future "dumps" of stolen boats, etc.).
I am not trying to be negative, but merely trying to be realistic. I really dread dealing with victims that have very unrealistic expectations of police based upon movies and TV shows. Shows like CSI and the like have made our job extremely frustrating at times because of these unrealistic expectations. The crime labs portrayed on CSI (assuming all the gadgets were actually real and available to purchase), in reality, would bankrupt the city or county that funded it.
In this case, the best bet initially is showing the video to as many people as possible in hopes of someone recognizing the vehicle. Posting on here was also a great idea.
I'll step down from the soapbox now...just venting a bit after working the past 36 hours straight on a bank robbery investigation...I wish I had the CSI cast here with their magic computer to solve it in 1 hour...
