I'm sorry for the, uh, loss and all...

Its all relative. Personally id like for someone to tell me right away. Its less painful that way.

If someone is dead, then he is dead. Their family needs to find out. Giving them the information right away seems less harsh. If you draw it out and try to break the news slowly you draw out the pain longer where you are in a state of panic (and potentially false hope for a few seconds) wondering what is wrong.

One perfect example of this was with a detective who was breaking the news to the parents of a young kid (in season 10 I think). The way he did it just seem to draw out the pain and make the parents freak out more. I remember getting angry with him thinking what if that was him trying to break the news to me, id be losing my mind wanting to knock his teeth out.

As for monotone: They see this a lot. They cant get overfly emotional to every cases. Some people/detectives are also less emotional then others.

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Dont be lazy, use the [quote ] [/ quote] tag.

I get what you're coming from. Sometimes they say it so bluntly. But I guess over the years they've had to tell so many families of the lost of a love one, they've gotten to the point they just say it. I'm guessing the first few times you have to tell someone that you're a lot more gentle but as time goes by it just becomes another day on the job, as sad as that is. I mean I'd like someone to try and be gentle but like another poster said the loved one is dead, and no matter how the news is broken to you, it's not going to bring that person back.




We're in the eye of a sh_tacane ~Mr.Lahey

I'm with you. They never show much compassion and when some ask questions about the victim and blurt out he's dead once they get the information they wanted it irritates me. Or those who do a phone notification. Just seems lazy.

Have you ever had to tell a family their loved one had passed away? I have. Granted I haven't had to tell them their family was murdered by a scum bag. It's not something you can get hardened too. You cannot get emotional, because it does not help the family. It's NEVER an easy thing, because no matter who you are it affects you as well. It must be 100x harder when it's because of something so senseless as a murder.

try it out. See how you do. then you'll actually have something that bothers you.

I've done death notifications, and there is no easy way to do it. You are accutely aware of the "before" and "after"; you realize you are destroying someone's life by the news you must break.
The assertion that people will somehow take the news better by virtue of a more sympathetic delivery is, in my experience, not true.

I agree some of these victims are good, cab driver, person walking from home, child killed by drive bye.. But the police know these people have a savage jungle environment. these *beep* heads 16 17 year olds killing people now are nothing but a product of ramped unwed teen pregnancy of the mid 1990s. nothing more!