How do the police know?

[Simon]

So, my best friend's mum passed away yesterday morning. Not coronavirus luckily but no less upsetting. He came around tonight for dinner and a chat.

Whilst we were reminiscing about relatives we'd lost he mentioned his father who'd died about 10 years ago. His father actually abandoned his whole family when my friend was about 6 years old, and he'd never spoken to him again. He didn't even know where he lived. My friend had long moved from the home he'd grown up at, along with the rest of his family. Yet 10 years ago the police arrived at my friends recording studio, asking if he was the son of x and breaking the news that he'd died earlier that day.

So, there was no link from the last known address of my friends dad to his current house, and therefore not to his place of work, yet somehow they knew not only that he was his son but also where he worked. How?

Similarly when my Gran passed away some 30 years ago. Mum was a radiotherapist at the Marsden in Belmont. Somehow the local police force were notified that Mum was Gran's daughter and then they turned up at her work to break the news. How could they know the link??

[jamcg]

They asked Alexa

[DeskJockey]

Sensus data/council birth registers?

[Sundayjumper]

“big data” isn’t a new thing.

I’ve been through various security clearance procedures over the years, and the questions they ask you, it’s not because they want to know the answer. They already know. They want to know whether you want to try to lie about any of it.

[mik]

Bill.
Gates.
Chips.

[Gavin]

NHS records have next of kin, usually with contact details.

[Gavster]

Plot twist: the father had been stalking the son for all that time and supplied the police with the address

But seriously, I would assume it is very easy to find out the name and date of birth of any children that a person has, through registers of births and deaths. Once you've got their childrens' full names and dates of birth, it can't be too hard to find out their current locations, unless they are trying to hide.

[duncs500]

I guess obviously the data is there to do it, the surprising thing is that the government systems have sufficiently got their shit together to make it available. I guess all you lads making £1k a day freelance for the the government have been doing something after all!