Organized Crime: Witness Intimidation Continues
Jim Kouri, CPP
July 28, 2005
Many police officers and prosecutors have become increasingly frustrated by their inability to investigate and prosecute cases successfully when key witnesses refuse to provide critical evidence or to testify because they fear retaliation by the defendant or his family and friends. While the US government manages the Witness Protection Program, Organized Crime gangs have their own program -- the Witness Intimidation Program.
This problem is particularly acute, and apparently increasing, in gang- and drug-related criminal cases. Witnesses' refusal to cooperate with investigations
and prosecutions should be a major concern: it adversely affects the justice system's functioning while simultaneously eroding public confidence in the government's ability to protect citizens.
A number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors' offices across the country have
already taken steps to prevent witness intimidation. These include increased use of
traditional witness security measures such as routinely requesting high bail for known
intimidators, aggressively prosecuting reported intimidation, closely managing key witnesses, and expanding victim/witness assistance services.
Several jurisdictions have also adopted innovative approaches, such as emergency and short-term relocation of witnesses (sometimes in collaboration with local public housing authorities), methods to prevent intimidation in the courthouse and jails,
and outreach programs to reduce community-wide fear and intimidation.
Most innovative witness security programs include provisions for relocating genuinely endangered witnesses, and most of the prosecutors and law enfrcement officers interviewed report that confidential witness relocation is the core protection service that all
programs need to provide. Respondents identified three levels of relocation:
emergency relocation -- placing the witness and
his or her family in a hotel or motel for up to a
few weeks;
short-term or temporary relocation -- using a
hotel or motel for up to a year or placing the
witness with out-of-town relatives or friends; and
permanent relocation -- moving the witness
between public housing facilities or providing a
one-time grant to reestablish the witness in new
private housing.
Because most relocations involve witnesses living in public housing, prosecutors and police investigators have implemented a variety of approaches to working with local housing
authorities to arrange the necessary transfers.
Preventing Intimidation in Courtrooms and Jails
Gang members and associates of defendants often appear in court in order to frighten witnesses into not testifying. Since the threat may be very subtle
and because judges often feel that the constitutional requirement of a public
trial prevents them from removing such individuals from the courtroom, it is
often difficult to stop this kind of intimidation. Nevertheless, a number of judges
have taken steps to remove gang members from the courtroom, to
segregate gang members and other intimidating spectators, or to close the courtroom entirely to spectators.
Incarcerated witnesses who are targets for intimidation in gang- and drug-related cases
require special protection, including separation from the defendant within the same correctional facility or transfer to a nearby correctional facility, and separate
transportation to court to testify.
Reducing Community-wide Intimidation
An atmosphere of community-wide intimidation, even when there is no explicit threat against a particular person, can also discourage witnesses from testifying.
Prosecutors and police investigators try to reduce community-wide intimidation through community- based policing and prosecution strategies, vertical
prosecution, and other strategies.
Whenever possible, jurisdictions can combine the range of witness protection
approaches discussed above into a coordinated, comprehensive, and formal
witness security program.
Prosecutors and police investigators recommend that a witness security
program be structured carefully in order to maximize the use of shared resources,
reduce prosecutor and police investigator involvement with time-consuming witness management tasks, and minimize civil liability of the prosecutor's office
and police department. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive witness security
model includes an organizing committee, an operational team, a
program administrator, and case investigators. Formal interagency cooperation
among the groups involved in protecting witnesses is essential to
achieving these goals.
Prosecutors often have statutory authority to prevent intimidation through techniques ranging from requesting the exclusion of gang members from
the courtroom to impeaching the prosecution's own witnesses if they change their testimony between deposition or preliminary hearing and trial. To
avoid liability for the safety or misconduct of witnesses participating in witness
security programs, experts strongly advise that no promises be made to
witnesses unless they can be kept and that any promises that are made be cleared
first with whoever has authority to comply with the promises.
Sources: US Department of Justice, National Criminal Justice Research Service, New York City Police Department, National Association of Chiefs of Police
This problem is particularly acute, and apparently increasing, in gang- and drug-related criminal cases. Witnesses' refusal to cooperate with investigations
and prosecutions should be a major concern: it adversely affects the justice system's functioning while simultaneously eroding public confidence in the government's ability to protect citizens.
A number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors' offices across the country have
already taken steps to prevent witness intimidation. These include increased use of
traditional witness security measures such as routinely requesting high bail for known
intimidators, aggressively prosecuting reported intimidation, closely managing key witnesses, and expanding victim/witness assistance services.
Several jurisdictions have also adopted innovative approaches, such as emergency and short-term relocation of witnesses (sometimes in collaboration with local public housing authorities), methods to prevent intimidation in the courthouse and jails,
and outreach programs to reduce community-wide fear and intimidation.
Most innovative witness security programs include provisions for relocating genuinely endangered witnesses, and most of the prosecutors and law enfrcement officers interviewed report that confidential witness relocation is the core protection service that all
programs need to provide. Respondents identified three levels of relocation:
emergency relocation -- placing the witness and
his or her family in a hotel or motel for up to a
few weeks;
short-term or temporary relocation -- using a
hotel or motel for up to a year or placing the
witness with out-of-town relatives or friends; and
permanent relocation -- moving the witness
between public housing facilities or providing a
one-time grant to reestablish the witness in new
private housing.
Because most relocations involve witnesses living in public housing, prosecutors and police investigators have implemented a variety of approaches to working with local housing
authorities to arrange the necessary transfers.
Preventing Intimidation in Courtrooms and Jails
Gang members and associates of defendants often appear in court in order to frighten witnesses into not testifying. Since the threat may be very subtle
and because judges often feel that the constitutional requirement of a public
trial prevents them from removing such individuals from the courtroom, it is
often difficult to stop this kind of intimidation. Nevertheless, a number of judges
have taken steps to remove gang members from the courtroom, to
segregate gang members and other intimidating spectators, or to close the courtroom entirely to spectators.
Incarcerated witnesses who are targets for intimidation in gang- and drug-related cases
require special protection, including separation from the defendant within the same correctional facility or transfer to a nearby correctional facility, and separate
transportation to court to testify.
Reducing Community-wide Intimidation
An atmosphere of community-wide intimidation, even when there is no explicit threat against a particular person, can also discourage witnesses from testifying.
Prosecutors and police investigators try to reduce community-wide intimidation through community- based policing and prosecution strategies, vertical
prosecution, and other strategies.
Whenever possible, jurisdictions can combine the range of witness protection
approaches discussed above into a coordinated, comprehensive, and formal
witness security program.
Prosecutors and police investigators recommend that a witness security
program be structured carefully in order to maximize the use of shared resources,
reduce prosecutor and police investigator involvement with time-consuming witness management tasks, and minimize civil liability of the prosecutor's office
and police department. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive witness security
model includes an organizing committee, an operational team, a
program administrator, and case investigators. Formal interagency cooperation
among the groups involved in protecting witnesses is essential to
achieving these goals.
Prosecutors often have statutory authority to prevent intimidation through techniques ranging from requesting the exclusion of gang members from
the courtroom to impeaching the prosecution's own witnesses if they change their testimony between deposition or preliminary hearing and trial. To
avoid liability for the safety or misconduct of witnesses participating in witness
security programs, experts strongly advise that no promises be made to
witnesses unless they can be kept and that any promises that are made be cleared
first with whoever has authority to comply with the promises.
Sources: US Department of Justice, National Criminal Justice Research Service, New York City Police Department, National Association of Chiefs of Police
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