Filing a flase Police complaint or report

[Reneedann]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MA

Is filing a false police report or complaint in Massachusetts against the law? the person alter their phone call logs on their cell to it make it appear as a phone threat left on the voice message where from my husband cell phone and they weren't. The Officer refused to look into the phone records directly from the provider to clear his name. He stated cell Phone logs cannot be altered and is going by what the phone logs directly from the phone show. How do We pursue the police department to further investigate the false accusation that was filed in their station to clear my husband name?

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MA

Is filing a false police report or complaint in Massachusetts against the law? the person alter their phone call logs on their cell to it make it appear as a phone threat left on the voice message where from my husband cell phone and they weren't. The Officer refused to look into the phone records directly from the provider to clear his name. He stated cell Phone logs cannot be altered and is going by what the phone logs directly from the phone show. How do We pursue the police department to further investigate the false accusation that was filed in their station to clear my husband name?

Your husband can subpoena the information and present it at trial. The police department does NOT have to investigate your husband's side of the case.

 

[Reneedann]

Your husband can subpoena the information and present it at trial. The police department does NOT have to investigate your husband's side of the case.

How do I get a subpoena? and once we prove he falsified the logs to file the complaint, can we file charges agianst him?

 

[CdwJava]

That would take a heck of a great deal of technical knowledge and equipment to alter the internal records to truly reflect a call that one did not receive! How sure are you that hubby did NOT call this person? Honestly, I have never heard of that being done.

But, your husband's defense attorney will know how to issue a subpoena for the information. Assuming the phone company has the same info, then what?

If they are able to show that the other party did indeed pull off a technical marvel and falsify the internal memory, then in addition to being amazed the state can initiate charges for a false report. You can ASK if the police will pursue it, but you cannot force them to do so. But, your hubby can sue the person if he chooses to.

- Carl

 

[Reneedann]

That would take a heck of a great deal of technical knowledge and equipment to alter the internal records to truly reflect a call that one did not receive! How sure are you that hubby did NOT call this person? Honestly, I have never heard of that being done.

But, your husband's defense attorney will know how to issue a subpoena for the information. Assuming the phone company has the same info, then what?

If they are able to show that the other party did indeed pull off a technical marvel and falsify the internal memory, then in addition to being amazed the state can initiate charges for a false report. You can ASK if the police will pursue it, but you cannot force them to do so. But, your hubby can sue the person if he chooses to.

- Carl

Actually it is called Spoofing and it can be done, I know he didn't make the calls. I was with him all day. And I checked my phone records from the Phone company and NO calls were made to the number. This is only the phone logs on the phone. the hard copy record from the phone campany will prove show my husband did NOt make these calls

 

[quincy]

Renee has posted her question in the Defamation section, as well, and I answered it there before noticing it double-posted here.

Call spoofing and caller ID spoofing is not, yet, illegal, although there have been attempts for a couple of years now to make it illegal. A Pennsylvania case involving a situation much like Renee's here was heard in 2008.

 

[CdwJava]

Well, I've never heard of it, but if it can be done without any great technical skill, so be it.

The end result is still the same - it is the state that has to make a decision as to whether or not to charge for the false report. And while spoofing might not be unlawful by itself, presenting it as "proof" of someone else's actions to the police is almost certainly unlawful. Whether the state will pursue it is another matter.

- Carl

 

[quincy]

Actually, Carl, according to my brief research, debt collectors and police are the biggest "legitimate" users of Caller ID spoofing.

The problem Renee's husband may face is in showing that any police report made was false, as the recipient of the threatening call may have been as unaware as Renee's husband that the number was spoofed - thereby making the police report an honest error in identity and not knowingly false.

 

[CdwJava]

Actually, Carl, according to my brief research, debt collectors and police are the biggest "legitimate" users of Caller ID spoofing.

News to me. I wouldn't be surprised, and we do have a service that does this, but we hardly ever have need to use it.

The problem Renee's husband may face is in showing that any police report made was false, as the recipient of the threatening call may have been as unaware as Renee's husband that the number was spoofed - thereby making the police report an honest error in identity and not knowingly false.

That is typically the issue with any charge for making a false report. These are hard to prove absent a confession.

- carl

 

[quincy]

Apparently, Caller ID spoofing has been around almost as long as Caller ID - used by debt collectors so that debtors will pick up the phone when they see that the call is made from a local number. It is just more refined now, and available to anyone who wants to pay for it.

Congress has been involved in getting a law passed since the spoofing started being used by scammers, who use real bank phone numbers that will show on Caller ID, for instance, and unsuspecting customers of the bank will reveal their account numbers over the phone.

Ain't technology wonderful?

By the way, you would still be able to spoof, Carl, as police would be exempt under the proposed legislation.