Break out the banhammer and crush any thought of actually playing Five Rounds Rapid straight.
Much depends on the nature of the supernaturalness in question. If it's still covered by The Masquerade, then there's not a whole lot you can do — if a cop has no reason to expect to be attacked by a Nigh-Invulnerable monster, then when they do get attacked, you can't expect much out of them. If the existence of such monsters is known, though, then I'd suggest treating it like any other issue that the police have to deal with. They'd recieve training on how to tell the difference between a ghoul and a ghast, carry garlic-infused pepper spray and a silver-plated nightstick, etc.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.I assume that since the police are going to become involved, that there is a crime going on, whether it be robbery, assault, rape, or something else. These things can be done by people (both sane and insane) disguised as supernatural creatures. The shock from what happened might have resulted in the distraught person remembering things quite a bit differently.
If the person has visible injuries, the police might give it a look. If there are an unusual number of similar reports, the police might give it a look. They may be expecting to find old man Jenkins in a vampire costume, scaring people off so that his attempts to tunnel into the bank aren't noticed, but they'll still give it a look.
Another thing you could do is have a Genre Savvy person seeking their help, who rather than babbling on about crazy stuff, simply gives them the details they're most likely to believe. Eg, instead of 'my friend has been captured by a vampire who's planning to sacrifice her at the full moon to bring about the end of the world' say 'my friend has been kidnapped, and I know the kidnapper will take her to place X at place Y because [made up plausible-sounding reason]'.
If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.You could avoid the worst extremes of this by at least having the police investigate before they realise that what's going on can't be explained in "normal" terms, rather than just dismissing the matter out of hand. At that point, perhaps one of them could become the Agent Mulder and keep pursuing the case despite official scepticism.
"Well, it's a lifestyle."12 am noon: Officer Krupski feels a tug on his uniform and looks down, Alice is age 8. ALICE: Cthulu ate Grandma. Krupski goes to Alice's home, there is no evidence of any crime. ALICE: That is because Cthulu swallowed Grandma whole. Krupski writes a letter "Dear Grandma, Alice is scared. She is at the Police officer Station. Please come and collect her. Krupski"
Krupski expects Grandma to come to the Police officer Station by 1 pm, he gets worried and even more worried at 2 pm. At 3 pm Cthulu flollops down high street eating people.
Police shoot Cthulu and it has no effect. Alice throws holy water at Cthulu and he runs away.
Dibbly requisitions all the priests in town to bless holy water.
Dibbly notices that holy water blessed by Proteatant Priests makes Cthulu run away, but Holy water blessed by Roman Catholic priests makes Cthulu stronger.
Krupski sets up an ambush with Roman holy water as the bait.
I always felt it totally idiotic in these shows that people are capable of lying to their closest friends, their family and everything... except the [beep] police. Some guy gets murdered by a vampire? Why don't you just tell them they got murdered by a murderer instead of "OH MAH GAWD IT WAS THE VAMPS! THE VAMPS!!1" Same with any other problem. It's quite easy to get the police involved if something bad is happening but these guys pretend you HAVE to tell them the supernatural part.
Some guy got kidnapped? Just say he got kidnapped. Why would you go "Oh nuts, my buddy got snatched by a werewolf. I saw it man! It was a werewolf!" When you could say, "I saw my friend get snatched by a crazy guy. He was about 6 ft tall and was just batshit crazy wearing what looked like wolf fur like he was pretending to be a werewolf."
edited 14th Mar '11 12:47:34 PM by breadloaf
Others have said this, but to reiterate: just because police don't believe a crime was caused supernaturally doesn't mean that it isn't a crime at all. One thing that always bothers me about this trope in use is that just because the police won't take Bob screaming "VAMPIRES KILLED MAH BRUDDER!" seriously doesn't mean they won't believe somebody killed his brother. Even if your protagonist can't keep his Genre Savvy and comes off as a crazed loon, if there's an actual crime involved, it's still reasonable for the police to investigate.
Of course, you can always go the other route, and have the police, or at least some of them, in on The Masquerade, complete with special-ops types standing by with garlic, holy water, and silver bullets, just in case. Assuming they don't die en masse, you've pretty likely made them useful.
If Police are in on the Masquerade and sucessfully maintain the Masquerade, then cops are competent and the trope is subverted.
Contrariwise if cops are honest, when Bob says "Vampires killed my brudder!" and cops goe to Bob's house and see the corpse. Police #1 assumes that the criminals were humans dresse in vampire suits and ivestigates clues.
Police #2 assumes that Bob done it and is trying to cop an insanity plea and investigates clues.
He thinks the criminals were humans dressed in Vampire suits; she thinks Bob done it. Together, they fight crime!
Another possibility: Bob or Alice has worked with the police in the past, giving them leads or what have you. As such, the cops know that Alice or Bob has a reputation of being helpful, so they're a bit more willing to listen. They may not believe everything Bob or Alice says, but they're not as dismissive.
Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.Sergeant Bob, however unlikely it might be, ain't Detective Klutz.
He doesn't believe in vampires. Odds are, he wouldn't know how to fight one. However, the mysterious disappearances on town DO concern him.
The clues follow, naturally, towards a vampire. He doesn't believe on vampires, but that trail is everything he got. He assumes the Bad Guy is trying to ambush him, so he goes there with massive backup. That trigger-happy, Ax-Crazy ATF guy he knows? There. That slightly unhinged, 30-something sniper from the SWAT team? She's there. His squad from the Homicides dept? There.
Sergeant Bob, on his own, would not defeat a vampire. Sergeant Bob and his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, however, *can*.
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

Especially in regards to dealing with the supernatural. It would be interesting to see how normal law enforcement officers can deal with magical beings without having to use arcane methods they most likely don't have access to.