Question: In the US, can you really be taken to a police station for (presumably) making a phony phone call? To me it seems like a waste of resources since it is probably a common occurrence. Also Jeannie would have stuck to her story that it was true...as break-ins do happen all the time.
Charles Austin Miller
29th Sep 2018
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Answer: Illinois law makes making a false report on 911 a form of disorderly conduct.
Answer: I think the main thing was Jeanie wasn't in school and was probably taken in for truancy as well as the supposedly phony call. But it's unlikely that they would have taken her to the police station if she was picked up at home.
6th Jan 2005
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Answer: Probably, yes. From dialogue, Ferris is about to graduate, and he and Jean seem to be at the same school, so either she's actually the younger of the two (which seems unlikely - would parents give the younger child a car but not the older?) or they're in the same school year. On the assumption that they're in the same year, the most likely scenario is that, yes, they're twins. The only other possibility is that they were born less than a year apart (putting them in the same school year), with Jean probably being the older of the two.
Or Ferris had repeated a year of school sometime in the past and Jeanie had caught up. The gifted car vs computer is a key point of resentment for Ferris throughout the movie, suggesting that Ferris may not have been trusted with a car, and got the computer instead.
Answer: Twins (even fraternal twins) are usually much closer in temperament to each other. Jean, on the other hand, seems very uptight and even envious of Ferris. Could be that Jean is an adopted child, same age as Ferris. There is typically some friction with adopted kids.
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Answer: In the United States, phoning in a false report to police can be treated as either a misdemeanor or felony offense (depending on jurisdiction). A false report is considered obstructing law enforcement, which is pretty serious. A misdemeanor offense can result in jail time of a year or less, while a felony offense can result in more than a year's jail time and heavy fines. The important factor that makes it a crime is knowingly trying to mislead the police, not accidentally reporting false information. In "Ferris Beuller's Day Off," Jean was not trying to mislead the police; but, lacking evidence, the police assumed she was knowingly phoning in a false report, so they arrested her (probably on a misdemeanor).
Charles Austin Miller