Posts Tagged ‘witness protection’
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Bangladesh’s Daily Star reports today that at least 60 percent of cases in Bangladesh’s court system have problems with witness intimidation or fear according to public prosecutors in Dhaka. This is leading to the delay, abandonment or failure of criminal cases as well as a long backlog of unsolved crimes. Law Minister Shafique Ahmed said, “We want to formulate a law to ensure witness protection, and have already asked the ministry to examine everything relevant.”
It sounds like the Law Minister has the right idea. Without robust witness protection laws, it is unlikely that significant improvements to the successful prosecution of criminal offenders will occur.
Tags: bangladesh, witness protection
Posted by Edward Mills in Law enforcement | No Comments »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Scotland’s Sunday Mail reported yesterday that the Scottish Witness Protection Unit protected 44 witnesses in 2009/10 – over three times the number witnesses protected in the previous year. This seems to highlight the growing importance of protecting vulnerable witnesses in the fight against organised crime gangs. The Sunday Mail article emphasises the shady nature of witness protection but accepts that the nature of the job requires the SWPU to work in the shadows. Despite this, the UK has some of the most professionally organised and legislated witness protection programmes in the world, serving to allow more witnesses to come forward to support the fight against serious organised crime.
Tags: law enforcement, serious organised crime, UK, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in Law enforcement, UK Police | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
The Bahama Journal reported yesterday that Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade is confident in the Bahamas’ witness protection programme. However, the paper reports three recent cases where witnesses to murder have been targeted by gunmen. Witness protection is a difficult task in any small island community but if law enforcement want witnesses to serious crimes, they must be able to prove their ability to keep those witnesses safe.
Tags: witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in International Police, Law enforcement | No Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Witness protection is a difficult business at the best of times. But when you’re on a small island the task of relocating and protecting a vulnerbale witness is made even harder. New legislation in Bermuda is attempting to overcome this problem by allowing witnesses to be sent to other British overseas territories including the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The Witness Protection Act will be presented for approval this month and will hopefully improve the effectiveness of law enforcement in the territory.
Tags: law enforcement, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in International Police, Law enforcement | No Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Another case of mismanagement of witness protection funds emerged this week after a vetern Los Angeles police detective pleaded not guilty to embezzling thousands of dollars which was intended for the protection and relocation of witnesses in Los Angeles.
Understandably, there is a high degree of secrecy surrounding the allocation of funds for witness protection, but this is no excuse for such oversights. Police departments need to make sure they have robust systems in place to ensure accountability and effective management of police funds.
Tags: corruption, financial management, law enforcement, police, US, witness protection
Posted by Edward Mills in Law enforcement, US Law enforcement | No Comments »
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Dr Hume Johnson and Dr Joseph Soeters write have written a two part article for the Jamaica Gleaner which highlights the culture of fear that surrounds witnesses to crime in Jamaica. The article cites recent examples of informers and testifying witnesses being killed for cooperating with police (Linval Thompson in 2005, Leslie Brown in 2006 and Kadian Campbell in 2007). In such a climate it is unsurprising that Jamaican police struggle to get cooperation from witnesses to crime. In the second part of the article, “State weakness and informerphobia“, Johnson and Soeters identify the need for Jamaican police to guarantee anonymity of the provenance of information as well as the introduction of new laws designed to improve public confidence in the legal system.
In the USA, the witness intimdation problem has been termed in some areas as the “Stop Snitching Phenomenon” – a report was written on the subject by the Department of Justice and Police Executive Research Forum. ABM’s response to the Stop Snitching phenomenon report highlights some of the ways in which the issues may be addressed.
Tags: confidential informant, Jamaica, law enforcement, police, witness intimidation, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in International Police, Law enforcement | No Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Last year the Police Executive Research Forum and U.S. Department of Justice published a report entitled “The Stop Snitching Phenomenon: Breaking the Code of Silence“. The report considers how the Stop Snitching trend has been growing over the last few years and how it has become a very real problem for almost half of the United States’ police departments. It is essential that police forces act to break down this climate of fear and intimidation otherwise the situation will only worsen.
In our response to the report – Tackling the Stop Snitching Phenomenon – we identify the some of the ways in which covert management software can help to alleviate some of the problems surrounding witness protection and internal corruption. By implementing ABM’s software alongside improved management processes, police departments will be aided in their battle against organised criminal gangs.
Tags: confidential informant, law enforcement, police, stop snitching, US, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in Law enforcement, US Law enforcement | No Comments »
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Protecting witnesses is a complex and challenging task. Two reports from different parts of the world highlight some of the difficulties that abound. The attorney general of the Bahamas and a senior Bahamian police official highlighted the difficulty of operating a witness protection program in a relatively small community. It is difficult to hide and protect someone when there is little space and in a population of under 300,000 people. In Kenya, there are increasing calls for improvements to witness protection as post-election violence continues to escalate.
The issues vary considerably, but a common concern is the need to engage in robust and secure processes to ensure that candidates for witness protection are properly dealt with and subsequent provision of protection is properly managed. IT systems can be a valuable tool in managing witness protection procedure and policy.
Tags: law enforcement, police, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in International Police, Law enforcement | No Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2010
A brief report by the broadcaster, RT, highlights the extreme lengths that some governments are going to in order to protect important witnesses. According to the article on the Russian police’s witness protection program has even been known to stage the deaths of witnesses in order to confuse the criminals who are seeking them out.
Witness protection is undoubtedly a high risk area and one that needs careful management. All organisations and agencies managing witness protection programmes must carefully consider the processes and policies that surround them.
Tags: police, Russia, witness protection, witness protection program
Posted by Edward Mills in Law enforcement | No Comments »
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