Witness intimidation is common in cases of violent crime, especially in tight-knit Philadelphia neighborhoods where people spend their entire lives surrounded by the same faces, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
But to have a cooperating witness killed? That's uncommon, according to prosecutors.
After two witnesses were killed in Philadelphia the district attorney sought help from the state.
In January 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court began allowing criminal cases to be brought before an indicting grand jury instead of taking the standard path of publicly accessible hearings.
Since that alternative was introduced, the D.A.'s office has used it in more than 1,000 cases, according to Deputy District Attorney John Delaney, who supervises the office's trial division, including the homicide unit.
"It's an important tool for us to help reluctant witnesses who have been intimidated, or who live where there has been intimidation pervasive in the community, to take the first step of cooperation," he said.
When a case is brought before a grand jury, the prosecution's witnesses testify without cross-examination from a defense attorney. In fact, the defendant and attorney aren't even present during the testimony.
"Witness intimidation is something that we're incredibly concerned about," Delaney said. "Is it something we have to guard against and be prudent about? Of course."
And now, because of the changes allowed by the high court, he said, "it's an exceedingly rare event for a witness to be harmed for cooperating with police or the prosecution."
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Showing posts with label Snitch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snitch. Show all posts
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Friday, July 20, 2012
The Cautionary Instruction: Crime rates influenced by reporting practices
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
July 20, 2012
Last fall, I posed the following question: Is there a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey? Can a culture of not cooperating with police have an impact on crime rates?
The question seemed relevant -- what we heard about crime rates did not jibe with what we were feeling in neighborhoods across the country.
The FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2011 found that violent crime declined for the fifth consecutive year. Despite the reports, a majority of Americans continued to believe that the nation's crime problem was getting worse. In 2011, sixty-eight percent of Americans said that crime increased over the previous year.
There is an unsettling influence on crime rates; it’s not a seamy underground crime industry, but rather law enforcement itself.
In New York City, an anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired police officers found that the manipulation of crime reports -- downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look better -- has long been part of the department’s culture.
“I think our survey clearly debunks the Police Department’s rotten-apple theory,” Eli B. Silverman, one of the survey’s authors told the New York Times. The rotten-apple theory was the argument that very few officers manipulated crime statistics. “This really demonstrates a rotten barrel,” added Silverman.
Crime reporting manipulation is not new, nor is it isolated to a few big city police departments. In the last 15 years crime reporting issues have surfaced in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Broward County, FL and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Some law enforcement practitioners blame the “fudge factor.” Politicians cajole police chiefs and supervisory staff to get crime numbers down. The practice invites precinct commanders to make it appear as though crime has dropped when in fact crime actually increased. Fudging an aggravated assault down to criminal mischief or robbery down to theft can have a dramatic impact on violent crime rates.
In Milwaukee, a Journal-Sentinel investigation found rampant police under-reporting of violent crime. A subsequent internal police department audit showed more than 5,300 violent assaults were misreported since 2006. The audit revealed that 20 percent of aggravated assaults were under-reported as lesser crimes and were not counted in Milwaukee’s violent crime rate during that period.
Police Chief Edward Flynn contends the errors in reporting violent crime were bureaucratic mistakes and not an effort to manipulate data. Flynn said the coding errors will be sent to the FBI for revision, meaning last year’s touted decrease in violent crime was actually an increase.
Visit Ipso Facto
July 20, 2012
Last fall, I posed the following question: Is there a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey? Can a culture of not cooperating with police have an impact on crime rates?
The question seemed relevant -- what we heard about crime rates did not jibe with what we were feeling in neighborhoods across the country.
The FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2011 found that violent crime declined for the fifth consecutive year. Despite the reports, a majority of Americans continued to believe that the nation's crime problem was getting worse. In 2011, sixty-eight percent of Americans said that crime increased over the previous year.
There is an unsettling influence on crime rates; it’s not a seamy underground crime industry, but rather law enforcement itself.
In New York City, an anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired police officers found that the manipulation of crime reports -- downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look better -- has long been part of the department’s culture.
“I think our survey clearly debunks the Police Department’s rotten-apple theory,” Eli B. Silverman, one of the survey’s authors told the New York Times. The rotten-apple theory was the argument that very few officers manipulated crime statistics. “This really demonstrates a rotten barrel,” added Silverman.
Crime reporting manipulation is not new, nor is it isolated to a few big city police departments. In the last 15 years crime reporting issues have surfaced in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Broward County, FL and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Some law enforcement practitioners blame the “fudge factor.” Politicians cajole police chiefs and supervisory staff to get crime numbers down. The practice invites precinct commanders to make it appear as though crime has dropped when in fact crime actually increased. Fudging an aggravated assault down to criminal mischief or robbery down to theft can have a dramatic impact on violent crime rates.
In Milwaukee, a Journal-Sentinel investigation found rampant police under-reporting of violent crime. A subsequent internal police department audit showed more than 5,300 violent assaults were misreported since 2006. The audit revealed that 20 percent of aggravated assaults were under-reported as lesser crimes and were not counted in Milwaukee’s violent crime rate during that period.
Police Chief Edward Flynn contends the errors in reporting violent crime were bureaucratic mistakes and not an effort to manipulate data. Flynn said the coding errors will be sent to the FBI for revision, meaning last year’s touted decrease in violent crime was actually an increase.
Visit Ipso Facto
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The Cautionary Instruction: Falling Crime Rates: Do We Know What We Think We Know Do?
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
September 24, 2011
According to two reports released this week violent crime continues its downward spiral. The FBI released its Crime in the United States report. In 2010, violent crime dropped 6 percent, the fourth consecutive year violent crime declined. The report is based on information provided by more than 18,000 city, county, university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Most importantly, the report contains information on the number of reported crimes, including murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and burglaries.
A second report, the National Crime Victimization Survey, gathers information on nonfatal crimes by questioning a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. The report found that violent crime fell by an even greater 12 percent nationwide last year.
The continued decline in violent crime is forcing some criminologists to reexamine their theories on the causes of crime. “It will be years before we get the answer, if we do, to what’s going on right now,” said Professor William Pridemore from Indiana University in Bloomington. “Criminologists have been pretty stumped.”
Could there be a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey?
The culture in some neighborhoods of not cooperating with police -- the idea that the “snitch” is both in danger and a neighborhood pariah -- has surely had some impact on crime reporting.
Last year, Pittsburgh’s decline in violent crime was even greater than the national average. The city saw a 9 percent drop in violent crime. Among violent crimes, robberies were down nearly 13 percent in 2010, and citywide aggravated assaults were down 4.2 percent.
Yet, last year murder was up 41 percent in Pittsburgh. Murder cannot go unreported. However, a drug dealer being robbed at gun point can and does go unreported. A home invasion, an assault, a shootout among rival gangs, most assuredly is going unreported.
National clearance rates for murder and manslaughter have fallen from about 90 percent in the 1960s to below 65 percent in recent years. Experts say that homicides are tougher to solve now because crimes of passion, where assailants are easier to identify, have been replaced by drug and gang-related killings. Many police chiefs -- especially in areas with rising numbers of unsolved crimes -- blame a lack of witness cooperation.
If witnesses are reluctant to cooperate in a murder investigation, it is reasonable to assume witnesses are equally reluctant to cooperate or report robberies, assaults and threats. In light of that reluctance, are we getting a true picture of the safety and security of our neighborhoods?
Visit Ipso Facto
September 24, 2011
According to two reports released this week violent crime continues its downward spiral. The FBI released its Crime in the United States report. In 2010, violent crime dropped 6 percent, the fourth consecutive year violent crime declined. The report is based on information provided by more than 18,000 city, county, university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Most importantly, the report contains information on the number of reported crimes, including murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and burglaries.
A second report, the National Crime Victimization Survey, gathers information on nonfatal crimes by questioning a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. The report found that violent crime fell by an even greater 12 percent nationwide last year.
The continued decline in violent crime is forcing some criminologists to reexamine their theories on the causes of crime. “It will be years before we get the answer, if we do, to what’s going on right now,” said Professor William Pridemore from Indiana University in Bloomington. “Criminologists have been pretty stumped.”
Could there be a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey?
The culture in some neighborhoods of not cooperating with police -- the idea that the “snitch” is both in danger and a neighborhood pariah -- has surely had some impact on crime reporting.
Last year, Pittsburgh’s decline in violent crime was even greater than the national average. The city saw a 9 percent drop in violent crime. Among violent crimes, robberies were down nearly 13 percent in 2010, and citywide aggravated assaults were down 4.2 percent.
Yet, last year murder was up 41 percent in Pittsburgh. Murder cannot go unreported. However, a drug dealer being robbed at gun point can and does go unreported. A home invasion, an assault, a shootout among rival gangs, most assuredly is going unreported.
National clearance rates for murder and manslaughter have fallen from about 90 percent in the 1960s to below 65 percent in recent years. Experts say that homicides are tougher to solve now because crimes of passion, where assailants are easier to identify, have been replaced by drug and gang-related killings. Many police chiefs -- especially in areas with rising numbers of unsolved crimes -- blame a lack of witness cooperation.
If witnesses are reluctant to cooperate in a murder investigation, it is reasonable to assume witnesses are equally reluctant to cooperate or report robberies, assaults and threats. In light of that reluctance, are we getting a true picture of the safety and security of our neighborhoods?
Visit Ipso Facto
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Cautionary Instruction: Protecting the 'Snitch', Protecting the Process
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
June 17, 2011
Testimony from an FBI agent during a recent murder trial in Omaha, Nebraska revealed an astonishing glimpse into undercover law enforcement investigations. The FBI paid a confidential informant more than $300,000 over five years for information used to help agents probe a drug operation. The payments were for undercover work conducted mostly in the Omaha area.
In some circles a confidential informant is referred to as a “snitch,” a slang term for a person cooperating with police to infiltrate a criminal enterprise, predominately the illegal drug trade. A confidential informant is a person usually accused of a crime who either comes forward, or is asked by police, to offer to assistance in exchange for leniency. Jailhouse informants, inmates often already convicted, are commonly recruited to testify about statements made by other inmates accused of murder, organized crime, sexual assault and just about any other crime.
The confidential informant has a useful place in the investigation and prosecution of criminal conduct. The closely vetted and reliable confidential informant can provide a wealth of information about an ongoing criminal enterprise. A drug informant can make controlled hand-to-hand purchases of illegal drugs without which there would be few successful drug prosecutions.
There are also drawbacks to using informants.
Professor Alexandra Natapoff recently wrote for Reason Magazine that a 2004 study by researchers at Northwestern University Law School, found that “more than 45 percent of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases were due to false informant testimony, making snitches ‘the leading cause of wrongful convictions in U.S. capital cases.’”
Some states have taken measures to deal with informants. In Florida, Rachel's Law was named for Rachel Hoffman, a recent college graduate who was arrested for possession of marijuana and Ecstasy. She was persuaded by police to cooperate in a large drug sting in exchange for leniency. She was murdered in the process. Rachel's Law now requires training for police who recruit confidential informants; informants must be told that a sentence reduction may not happen; and informants must be told they have the right to consult an attorney. .
In Pennsylvania, Senate Bill 121 seeks to ban internet websites that publish the name or identity of individuals who cooperate with police investigations.
The Florida statute and the Pennsylvania bill are efforts to protect those who cooperate. However, more work needs to be done to establish a uniform set of guidelines for engaging and using informants in police investigations and criminal prosecutions.
Visit Ipso Facto
June 17, 2011
Testimony from an FBI agent during a recent murder trial in Omaha, Nebraska revealed an astonishing glimpse into undercover law enforcement investigations. The FBI paid a confidential informant more than $300,000 over five years for information used to help agents probe a drug operation. The payments were for undercover work conducted mostly in the Omaha area.
In some circles a confidential informant is referred to as a “snitch,” a slang term for a person cooperating with police to infiltrate a criminal enterprise, predominately the illegal drug trade. A confidential informant is a person usually accused of a crime who either comes forward, or is asked by police, to offer to assistance in exchange for leniency. Jailhouse informants, inmates often already convicted, are commonly recruited to testify about statements made by other inmates accused of murder, organized crime, sexual assault and just about any other crime.
The confidential informant has a useful place in the investigation and prosecution of criminal conduct. The closely vetted and reliable confidential informant can provide a wealth of information about an ongoing criminal enterprise. A drug informant can make controlled hand-to-hand purchases of illegal drugs without which there would be few successful drug prosecutions.
There are also drawbacks to using informants.
Professor Alexandra Natapoff recently wrote for Reason Magazine that a 2004 study by researchers at Northwestern University Law School, found that “more than 45 percent of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases were due to false informant testimony, making snitches ‘the leading cause of wrongful convictions in U.S. capital cases.’”
Some states have taken measures to deal with informants. In Florida, Rachel's Law was named for Rachel Hoffman, a recent college graduate who was arrested for possession of marijuana and Ecstasy. She was persuaded by police to cooperate in a large drug sting in exchange for leniency. She was murdered in the process. Rachel's Law now requires training for police who recruit confidential informants; informants must be told that a sentence reduction may not happen; and informants must be told they have the right to consult an attorney. .
In Pennsylvania, Senate Bill 121 seeks to ban internet websites that publish the name or identity of individuals who cooperate with police investigations.
The Florida statute and the Pennsylvania bill are efforts to protect those who cooperate. However, more work needs to be done to establish a uniform set of guidelines for engaging and using informants in police investigations and criminal prosecutions.
Visit Ipso Facto
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