"Intelligence Led Prosecution" Leads To Smarter Prosecutions

Now this is an interesting use of a crime analyst: There's a story over at the South Carolina news outlet IslandPacket.com that has this innovative use of a crime analyst's skills; helping prosecutors dig deeper into a defendant's background.

Hightower's training gives him access to SLED resources worth millions of dollars. He uses them to "dig a little deeper" and pass the information to prosecutors, so they can argue for higher bonds or for no bond at all.  

And what Hightower finds out can also be used at trial to make the case for harsher sentences, Stone said.  

"What I needed was an objective way to determine who is the worst of the worst and, on a real-time basis, at 7 in the morning," Stone said. "These are not the people you want out -- these are hardened criminals."  

Hightower is the first SLED-trained crime analyst hired by a state solicitor's office, according to SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson.

This is the first time I have heard of a crime analyst being employed directly by a prosecutor's office. Many analysts working for individual law enforcement agencies help their agency and prosecutors when working on cases that their agency has investigated. For example I regularly provide maps and other analytical products when are our cases are getting ready to go to trial.

I can see the value in having an analyst that helps prosecutors prioritize cases they have for prosecution. Just like crime analysts help cops with smarter rather than harder, a crime analyst working at a prosecutor's office can help them to be more efficient with the limited resources they have as well.

What other innovative ways have you seen crime analysts employed?

WhatRe

ad mTore e: http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/01/28/1944911/crime-analyst-helps-solicitors.html#storylink=cpy

Should A Murder Victim's Past Matter?

There was an AP news story over at Yahoo News this weekend that brings up the question posed in this post; Should a murder victim's past matter? The news story covers a recent change in policy by New Orleans Police who are now releasing all the details of a murder victim's past with regards to their criminal history.

New Orleans police say revealing a victim's rap sheet lets the public know that much of the violence is happening between people with similar criminal backgrounds. Families of the slain victim's say the practice is insensitive, and others outraged with the policy say it has racial overtones and sends a message that the victims got what was coming to them.

"I don't understand why they want to do it," said Kathryn White, whose 25-year-old son was gunned down in what she said was a case of mistaken identity. White said her son was arrested just once for a small amount of marijuana.

"You are already in so much pain and then you have to see people saying bad things about your dead child. What good does that do anyone," she said.

This is really a conundrum for police. Regardless of a victim's past, nothing they might have done makes it acceptable for them to die. However, certain lifestyle choices may make it more likely that one is going to become a victim of violent crime. For example, if you are not a prostitute, you are probably less likely to become the victim of a serial killer. Likewise, if you are not a drug dealer, you are probably less likely to be the victim of a drug ripoff robbery with all the violence associated with that.

Police are often stuck trying to reassure a nervous public of their safety after a lurid news story about violent crime hits the press. The news story is probably not going to tell the whole story about these crimes. When was the last time you saw a news story about a murder where the victim's mother tearfully told a reporter that her son was a drug dealer who ripped off his supplier before he was killed?

It is not possible for police to protect you from crime if you are willingly going to engage in questionable behavior. That doesn't make your death any more acceptable. However, it does explain why these awful crimes happen sometimes.

That being said, I think police agencies need to think long and hard about releasing information about a victim's past. Just because a murder victim got busted for weed years ago doesn't mean that he was doing anything wrong when he got killed. Releasing irrelevant information about a victim's past is only likely to hurt the victim's family and set the community where they lived against you.

Veterans In Crisis Pose Unique Challenges For Cops

USA Today had an interesting piece that hits close to home for my agency. The story is about a DOJ funded training program to help law enforcement agencies deal the unique challenges that military veterans with mental health problems pose for police. 

Developers of the pilot program, to be launched at 15 U.S. sites this year, said there is an "urgent need" to de-escalate crises in which even SWAT teams may be facing tactical disadvantages against mentally ill suspects who also happen to be trained in modern warfare. 

"We just can't use the blazing-guns approach anymore when dealing with disturbed individuals who are highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare," said Dennis Cusick, executive director of the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute. "That goes beyond the experience of SWAT teams."

The agency where I work is adjacent to Fort Hood, Texas which is one of the largest military installations in the world. It also houses quite a number of soldiers who have been deployed, often multiple times to combat. Unfortunately, we also occasionally deal with veterans in crisis. We've been very fortunate that we have not had  more problems than we've had. We're also fortunate that we have a very good working relationship with the military commands at Fort Hood. This often gives us more options than an agency that has little or no military relationships or is very far away from a military installation.

One trend I have been worried about is the number of veterans that have been discharged with behavioral issues that have decided to stay in our area. In years past, if a solider misbehaved and got discharged because of this, he we back home to his home of record. However, with the economy being what it is, we are seeing more ex-soldiers who have been "chaptered out" of the Army staying in the area because there are no jobs  back in Podunkville where they came from.

Anecdotally, I'm seeing more of these folks being arrested and entering the criminal justice system. Some of them are starting to become repeat customers because their mental health issues make them more likely to offend. This is doubly problematic because the poor economy has caused Texas to cut back on mental health care funding. Jails and prisons make poor substitutes for mental health care and our veterans, troubled or otherwise deserve better.

Has your agency had issues dealing with troubled veterans? Would better training help your agency deal with these vets?

Does the 5th Amendment Cover Computer Encryption?

This will be interesting to watch: A judge in Colorado has issued a court order for a defendant to decrypt her laptop hard drive so police can search for evidence which would likely be used against her. The tech website CNET.com has this bit:

Much of the discussion has been about what analogy comes closest. Prosecutors tend to view PGP passphrases as akin to someone possessing a key to a safe filled with incriminating documents. That person can, in general, be legally compelled to hand over the key. Other examples include the U.S. Supreme Court saying that defendants can be forced to provide fingerprints, blood samples, or voice recordings.

On the other hand are civil libertarians citing other Supreme Court cases that conclude Americans can't be forced to give "compelled testimonial communications" and extending the legal shield of the Fifth Amendment to encryption passphrases. Courts already have ruled that that such protection extends to the contents of a defendant's minds, the argument goes, so why shouldn't a passphrase be shielded as well?

I have a feeling this fight is going to last a while in the courts. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if it makes it to the US Supreme Court.

Never Underestimate The Creativity Of A Crook

USA Today had a story yesterday about this inventive criminal:

Police in Lynn, Mass., arrested a woman at a convenience store who allegedly used a stolen welfare benefits card to purchase $64 worth of soda, then immediately fed the full cans into an automated redemption machine to collect the nickel deposit on each can, The Daily Item reports.

Apparently 18 twelve packs of full soda cans were too much for the machine which was damaged in this episode.

Why Public Crime Mapping Is Important

There are times that I really enjoy my job. Today was one of those times. At the agency where I work, we had a press event to roll out a public crime mapping application. This application called RAIDS Online from Bair Analytics takes crime data from our records management application and pushes it out via a Google Maps mashup to the public.

This means that anyone going to the site can view crime data reported to my department using a web browser and a computer connected to the Internet. They can query specific types of crimes, specific date ranges and even do some basic analytics like density maps and temporal analysis.

In addition to just being some neat technology, this application is important for the community where I work. For many years, crime data has been stored and used by police agencies, but is often not available outside those agencies. By locking this information up and not allowing the public access, we reduce our ability to partner with our communities to reduce crime.

A publicly available crime mapping application like this allows the community to understand the crime problems in their community better. Unless you are really active in your neighborhood, you might not always know if one of your neighbors two blocks away was burglarized. If you aren't aware of this, you might not think to report the teenager with a backpack walking through the neighborhood during the time he should be in school.

Armed with the knowledge of what is happening in your community, you are more likely to make the connection between crime and that suspicious teenager. Then, you will be more likely to pick up the phone and call police.

A few years ago, the public was informed of a burglary problem in the city where I work. There were a number of news stories about this problem that heightened the public's awareness of the problem. When this problem was fresh on their minds we started getting lots of calls from citizens reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. Before long we were catching burglars in the act right and left because of the calls of these concerned citizens. Had the public not been aware of the problem, they likely would not have made the connection and called police.

In the same way, it's my hope that making this information available to the community empowers our citizens to act in partnership with us. What is your agency doing to inform your community of crime problems in your community?

Why Do Reporters Sometimes Have Such Trouble With Crime Stats?

As a crime analyst I have a professional interest in news articles about crime stats even when they aren't about the city where I work. When the article is about the city where I work, I have a vested interest in them as I often have provided the stats that the article refers to.

Yesterday afternoon, I was checking articles from the local media outlets when I found one from Philip Jankowski over at the Killeen Daily Herald. The piece titled: "Killeen homicides rise in 2011" looked at homicides that occurred in Killeen in 2011. I have worked for the Police Department in Killeen for nearly 21 years so this was going to be article that covered a topic that I was very familiar with. In the story there was a statement I found very troubling:

"Aside from the Luby's massacre in 1991 when 26 people were killed at once, the last time Killeen had 15 homicides was in 1979.

Since the city had about one-third of its current population more than 30 years ago, the homicide rate nearly tripled in 2011. There were 12 reported homicides in 2010."

Source: http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=63745 as retrieved 1/22/2012 at 5:06 PM CDT.

The part that troubled me was that the statement that homicide rate in Killeen had "nearly tripled in 2011" as compared to 1979 was flat out wrong. Not just a little bit off, but completely and totally wrong. In this case, I provided the numbers that were ostensibly used to write that part of the article. Let's look a little deeper at these numbers.

In 1979 the Killeen Police Department reported 15 murders to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) Program. In 2011, the department also reported 15 murders to UCR.

Obviously, the population of Killeen has changed from 1979 to 2011. In order to directly compare these numbers we need to calculate the murder rate.

Rate is the number of times an event occurs in a given population. In the case of crime rates, they are normally calculated as the number of crimes reported per 100,000 population. This allows us to determine if a crime occurs more or less often in given population even if the original population figure is different from the later.

You can think of crime rate this way, if you were to line up 100,000 residents of a city, the rate would tell you how many of them had been victim of a particular crime in a given year.

To calculate rate the formula looks like this:

(Number of Crimes / Population) x 100,000 = Crime Rate Per 100,000 population

In 2010, the population of Killeen was reported to be 127,921. In 1980, the population was reported to be 46,292. We'll have to use these population figures to calculate the rates because they are the closest available numbers to the years we are interested in. (As a side note, sometime around May of 2012 the Census Bureau will release a 2011 population estimate for Killeen. When those numbers become available I'll recalculate our crime rates.)

To calculate the murder rate for 1979 the formula would look like this:

(15/46,292) x 100,000 = 32.4 murders per 100,000 population

To calculate the murder rate for 2011 the formula would look like this:

(15/127,921) x 100,000 = 11.72 murders per 100,000 population

Clearly we see that the murder rate in 1979 is nearly three times higher than the murder rate in 2011. (If you're interested it works out to be a 63.82% decrease in 2011 as compared to 1979.) This is the exact opposite of what Jankowski reported in his story.

Now when a reporter gets crime statistics wrong in a story, there are a few possibilities about what might have happened. One, the reporter may not have understood what he or she was trying to report. Another possibility is that he or she might have been careless about his or her reporting. The other is that the facts are being deliberately being misrepresented.

In this case, the story indicates that the murder rate is much higher in 2011 as compared to 1979. However, the truth is that a citizen of Killeen was around three times more likely to be murdered in 1979 than he or she would be in 2011.

This is a huge problem. The public's perception of crime is influenced by what they see reported in the media. This perception often has significant consequences. If a city gets a reputation as having a high crime rate, how many new businesses are likely to relocate there? How, many people are going to look at that community as a place they want to live and work (and buy newspapers)?

This is one of the reasons I am passionate about accurately reporting crime statistics. When accurately counted and properly used, these statistics can tell you a lot about your community and the effectiveness of your crime fighting efforts. As I am often fond of saying: "In order to know how to get where you are going, you have to know where you have been." And you can quote me on that.