So did they ever explain how Nick became a cop?
Because I've never heard of a police academy that ran a nights-only training course.
Give me a hedgehog and I'll show you.
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Ummm so he turned up and said hey I'm a cop I just transferred in and btw I'll be working nights only......
And no one checked??
Even Canadian forces aren't that dumb....
Give me a hedgehog and I'll show you.
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Actually there are real life cases where this has happened, the series "The Pretender" was based on an actual living person who was able to pass himself off as a surgeon, a deputy, a prison warden, a lawyer, an engineer and various other professions his name was Ferdinand Demara, Jr. apparently he was vary smart guy with a very good memory.
All his previous employers had good things to say about him they were just shocked to find out he was a pretender.
Demara also founded a college when he pretended to be a monk, the school later changed it's name when it relocated which and is now Walsh University.
A few years ago I saw one of the true crime series on what is now Discovery ID, and they had a young man on an episode who had passed himself off as a cop several times and was able to get employed as a cop.
If you have another person information you can get employed under that person's name and social security number, I know this from personal experience. When I was contacted by the IRS about some unpaid taxes.
Also if a police department calls asking for an employment reference it's not like the HR department is going to say anything nor is an immediate supervisor since all they're going to assume in ost cases is that the person is out looking for another job but it doesn't mean they're leaving either.
In the case I saw the guy didn't do anything wrong as a police detective he actually solved several crimes that had stumped previuos investigators and had even assisted the FBI in some cases because of his deduction skills, all they could charge him with was impersonating an officer.
The problem was the people he had arrested and gotten confessions from at the time of their arrest since he wasn't a police officer they were looking at some cases being tossed out.
You also have to remeber the series was done in the late 80s and early 90s and a lot of police departments didn't have everything computerized, as a matter of fact this came up in one episode, and Nick hired a hacker to fix his information, since when the computer technician (played by Rachel Luttrell who would be better known as Tayla on "Stargate: Atlantis") first looked it up nothing came up. by the end of the episode it was explained away as a computer glich.
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.
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I've been watching season two, and he used a guy named Merlin to help some other people get new identities, and he became a Chicago cop, by hypnotizing the chief to hire him and not send him to the academy, getting on the grave yard shift was easy, the chief stated no one ever wanted that shift.
After he gets his partner shot, Nick decides he needs to go to the academy.
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.
In the NICK KNIGHT film, Nick transferred from Chicago, IL, to Los Angeles, CA. These types of moves do happen, but usually it's not a transfer but rather a hiring process of a new officer from another state and a different jurisdiction. They got it wrong.
Evidently no one ever realised that a transfer from Chicago to Toronto, CANADA, makes no sense. This is an enormous hole in the premise of the series. Silly, isn't it?
In the NICK KNIGHT film, Nick transferred from Chicago, IL, to Los Angeles, CA. These types of moves do happen, but usually it's not a transfer but rather a hiring process of a new officer from another state and a different jurisdiction. They got it wrong.
Evidently no one ever realised that a transfer from Chicago to Toronto, CANADA, makes no sense. This is an enormous hole in the premise of the series. Silly, isn't it?
They didn't get it wrong, the "Nick Knight" television movie is different from the series, they re-shot an entirely new television two part opener for the series.
When the first series didn't get picked up as a series, they decided to set it in Toronto where the series was filmed.
Going to another country and becoming a police officer wouldn't be any different than going from one city or state police department in the U.S. if the person went to the other country and applied for citizenship or had already become a citizen they would apply for the job just like anyone else.
In the series "Dempsey and Makepeace" the officer had relocated to the UK under a special transfer program, and they do have those types of programs. there were some police officers in my city from Russia a few years ago, and our city sent some officers to Russia.
Nick had not worked for the Chicago police department for a long time, in a flash back sequence he's working for the Chicago police department sometime in the 60s, he was working for the Toronto police department in the present year the series was on the air.
In Nick's case he moved to Toronto from Chicago, and it appeared that he may have had dual-citizenship or had been in Toronto for quite sometime. Also when they did the flashback sequence with his first meeting with Natalie he wasn't a cop he was a burned body in a body bag. It may be that Natalie may have also vouched for Nick as a reference since medical examiners do travel to conferences in other countries to share new techniques, and this something that Natalie also has mentioned she has done in the past.
She may have stated she met Nick in Chicage when he was a detective.
Ironically I just watched the episode where the computer technician puts in Nick's badge number and comes up with no information, he is seen later contacting a guy with the last name of Merlin who tells Nick he should have come to him in the first place and he would have set everything up for Nick right when he wanted to join the force.
In another episode Stonetree mentions when he hired Nick for the job he went along with a lot of Nick's requests e.g. his allergy to sunlight etc. and I think the department was short staffed when Nick was hired.
There is also another episode where he uses another guy to obtain documents for some other people he appeared to have used the guy in the past.
Also Nick had not worked for the Chicago police department for a long time, in a flash back sequence it's clear he's working for the Chicago police department sometime in the 60s.
At the time when this series was filmed using computers was very rare for background checks even in the government especially at the city level in the episode I mentioned, the computer technician was setting up the new computer system which is why Nick was able to explain it away at first as some computer glitch and even she agreed at the time, since they were just setting it up at the time later in the episode she checks a second time and tries to get a print out when she doesn't get anything she informs Capt. Stonetree and he says "It probably a computer glitch but to keep me informed."
When she goes to check the third time everything about Nick's past history was on the computer, she informs Nick's boss Capt. Stonetree and he replies "See it was just a computer glitch."
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good. share
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What does that have to do with him becoming a police officer, and having a hacker who could get into a computer?
I don't know if the Merlin guy was a vampire , if he was it would have been quite easy for them to compel someone to let him into a computer database center and enter or alter the information or a vampire could have compelled the people for Merlin, it was apparent in the episode that all the vampires had used Merlin in the past.
Jeanette owned a night club, to own a night club you have to get a liquor license and in most municipalities there is a hearing to get the license and a background check. Most states don't allow felons to get liquor licenses.
Jeanette also mentioned using some organized crime boss to help her with such problems.
I'm in my 50s and I work in the computer engineering and science fields, and my friend Kevin was convicted for hacking several computer and communications companies in 1988.
You would be surprised how many employees give away information and allow access to their computer databases, Kevin was able to do this just by using mobile phones just as others had in the past by using phone boxes. Not to mention the people who will take money and sell you the information needed to gain access in the past and now. In one case Kevin got the number from someone he knew that worked at the company and it allowed him access to the companies software which he stole.
Just a few days ago the Justice Department and FBI have jointly announced that they have managed to close down an international credit card fraud ring which spanned eight countries and 28 states, with a total of 18 people involved.
Those people were spread across the globe, with some in countries like Pakistan, India, China, Romania and Japan, while others were state-side. Specific examples include a 31 year old credit counselor from Philadelphia and a 74 year old jeweler from New Jersey. Together these people manufactured the identities of 7,000 people, linking them through 80 fake business, 1,800 mailing addresses – together collecting and managing upwards of 25,000 credit cards.
The way the scheme operated, was to create a person’s identity through the ring’s varied contacts.
There have been several stories where guys joined police departments in the past several years, I saw a guy on television talking about being a detective, the main reason his was such a big deal is because he had worked cases that went to trial and they were having to go back and re-try those cases because all the lawyers filed appeals stating their clients hadn't been given due process since he wasn't a real police officer he wasn't authorized to read people their rights. He had done this at several police departments before getting caught and when they interviewed him he was working as a detective in another state as a detective.
A few years ago I lived in a state where an employee of the DMV was arrested for selling information to illegals to allow them to get drivers licenses.
The creator of the series "The Pretender was inspired to create his character in the series on Ferdinand Waldo Demara who had worked as a sheriff's deputy, a surgeon, prison warden and a lawyer just to name a few professions he was able to gain employment, he was never trained nor did he go to school for any of these professions, he even had a college named after him (The college changed it's name after he was eventually found out and it's still operating as Walsh College.).
If you can find a copy of "The Great Impostor" by Robert Crichton, it was published in 1960 and recounts Demara's many occupations he was able to gain access and find employment.
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.
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It was a new computer system as a matter of fact they show the IT guy telling the information clerk played by a young Rachel Lutrell, we then see her at the computer and she says to him when she tries to look up Nick that the only information on him is his last few years with their police department, .
The information clerk is the one that says it must be a glitch, she had already told Nick that they had just got the system up and running that morning and that if she had only come and asked her first she have pulled up all of Sckanke's old cases, arrest, background, commendations etc., she tries to impress Nick by recalling his badge number and putting it in the database and only the recent inforamtion comes up, she on her own keeps checking,.
She then informs Captain Stone tree about how she checked it several time and according to their database she couldn't find any past work information or medical information about Nick in their database and according to "THEIR" database Officer Knight doesn't exist.
Nick over hears what she says and ask Jeanette if Larry Merlin is still in town, Jeanette replies you are in trouble aren't you.
Nick then meets Larry Merlin, and Larry Merlin informs Nick "Getting access to the main trauma system mainframe won't be a problem." Merlin says "yes, right away.", Nick says good.
Merlin then informs Nick that isn't all there is to it, since Nick has he's been flagged as a blank file, they're going to back check everything they add on him, Nick ask him what he means, and Merlin replies that whatever identity we create it has to be loaded into every information system all down the line, from the hospital Nick was born to his last job, and he tells Nick that's going to take time.
Nick ask Merlin how long is loading all that information going to take and Merlin says about a week if he's lucky less, Nick tells Merlin he needs it done right away because he doesn't want them asking him a lot of questions.
Merlin then replies by telling Nick he should have come to him first and he would have set Nick up proper and he would have saved Nick a lot of grief, Merlin tells Nick not to worry he'll find a way to take care of it.
When she looks again, all Nick's information is on the system but she tells Captain Stonetree that she looked for a week in every database and there was nothing on Nick, and now everything is there and she can't understand it, Captain Stonetree blows it off and says. computers work in mysterious ways and he says personally Norma, I've never trusted the things, Nick happens to be walking by and Stonetree ask him where he was born while he and the information technician Norma are looking at the computer information on the monitor, Nick replies, Chicago, Stone tree then tells Norma see it's always better to go to the source, and Nick says he was born in 1957, and Norma says 1958, Nick then says oh, yeah it was New Year's day and that he always gets mixed up by it.
Nick and Stonetree walk and Norma looks puzzled, even if she thought it was strange that the information was suddenly in all the databases she had checked earlier, she would have know explanation how someone could gain access in a few days to all those databases.
You also have to remember at the beginning of the episode we see the information technician with the IT guy and he's telling her "THEIR" database is up, anything that didn't show up could have been easily explained way because the system was new.
Like I stated earlier Larry Merlin most likely was a vampire as well as being a computer hacker, he stated he and Nick had a long history together when they were talking at Jeanette's club.
in 1989 when this series first start 15% of homes had computers, but many adults used computers at work for word processing and just as they were doing in this episode for doing database searches and most people knew the problems sometimes associated with trying to find information on their own computer systems at work.
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.