'What Happened'? An Epistemics of Before and After in Police Questioning

Author:

• Mardi J. Kidwell (Univ of New Hampshire)

Abstract:

When police arrive at the scene of a possible crime or accident, they make inquiries of participants to determine what sort of prior events have transpired to lead up to the situation. "What happened?", and its close variants, are used by police and other emergency personnel to elicit from participants details about what they know, have seen, and/or have possibly experienced. They do so to orient themselves to the problem, and to flesh out its ontogeny¬--that is, how the problem "came to be"--as part of the work of finding out what services or treatments may be needed, and to find out who may be culpable of negligence or wrongdoing in a situation. This paper examines citizen responses to "what happened?", and the sorts of resources that police drawn on to gauge their plausibility.