What do they do with all this information?

[Lizzi]

Following on from the obsession with 'Dossier' - the very sound of which invokes a slight panic/depression in me now, what do they need half the information for??

For example, my car was damaged - so I needed a police report for the insurance - the following conversation ensued regarding one of the many questions:

Gendarme: what does your father do for a living?
Me: My father died 20 years ago.
Gendarme: What did your father do for a living when he was alive.


Honestly!

[Stedman_Triples]

>
>Gendarme: what does your father do
>for a living?
>Me: My father died 20
>years ago.
>Gendarme: What did your father do
>for a living when he
>was alive.
>
>
>Honestly!


What would they have said if you had replied Great Train Robber!!!

[letrangere]

Next time you're asked, write something completely different. Bring your parents back to life, have them living in Bhutan or Mongolia and wait and see if the authorities notice. It's the kind of information that is surely only asked so as to keep half a dozen civil servants occupied.

Margaret

[Julie_and_Dick]

As a serious answer to this question - I know that in the UK we need about 4 pieces of information to positively identify someone, usually name, age, gender and one other. In a population of 50+ millions there are hundreds of duplicates - how many Richard Smiths are there in the UK, for example? Given that there are three at my doctor's and two at the dentist, quite a few.

Is this worse in France, possibly due to the relatively restricted number of given names which until the last generation had to be from the 'official' list?


Regards,

Dick

[Kevinmc]

I had the same when we were filling in a burglary report. Only they wanted to know about my mother.

Died 15 years ago in Ireland. And surprise, surprise it didn't lead to a conviction.

Maybe they were looking for help from the other side.