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D.C. Crime Evidence in Doubt
A front-page article in theOctober 15th issue of The Washington Post reports massive mishandling of evidence at the District of Columbia's Police Department unguarded evidence warehouse and drug lab. The Post obtained information about the "terrible conditions" at the facility from Booz-Allen & Hamilton, a consulting firm hired by the D.C. financial control board that is overseeing city government operations in the District of Columbia.
According to Booz-Allen & Hamilton reports, drugs, guns, and DNA samples were stored or mishandled in ways that would destroy their value as evidence. Criminal defense attorneys for clients accused of crimes like rape and drug dealing have asked for copies of the Booz-Allen reports, believing they will give rise to questions about "quality of evidence" in many of the roughly 7,000 felony cases (almost half involving drugs) filed each year in D.C. Superior Court. Several attorneys say they expect many D.C. criminal defense attorneys to use the Booz-Allen report in the defense of their clients.
A D.C. Superior Court judge has already postponed a felony drug trial until she determines whether evidence stored at the evidence warehouse is "tainted." The United States Attorney's office, which prosecutes criminal defendants in the District of Columbia, acknowledged that sloppy storage and loss and destruction of evidence had occurred - with the loss of DNA evidence in rape cases particularly damaging. The article was written by Post staff writers Michael Powell and Bill Miller.
The Ability to Pull A Disappearing Act
Is Just Disappearing
A front-page article in the October 15th issue of The Wall Street Journal describes the difficulties encountered by adults who want to "disappear" and take on new identities. According to the article, it is becoming almost impossible for American adults to keep their names and identities after "vanishing," without living on the margins of society. With the growing use of sophisticated security systems, and trillions of bits of personal data available to anyone with a computer, Americans have gradually lost the ability to lose themselves.
It is possible for for adults not wanted by law-enforcement agencies (called "walkaways" by the police) to change their identities and evade detection. But with detailed and accurate personal information so easy to obtain, it is necesssary to change not only one's name, identity, and state of residence, but also one's occupation, hobbies, and contact with family, friends, and associates. The article was written by Journal staff reporter Cynthia Crossen.
Rush to Claim Success For Welfare Overhaul
Stumbles Over Facts
According to a front-page article in the October 17th issue of The Wall Street Journal, fourteen months after the federal welfare reform bill became law politicians everywhere are shouting that "Welfare reform works," (as President Clinton puts it). And politicians are racing to the microphones to sing welfare reform's praises - sometimes stumbling over facts on the way. Much of the election-year political hype has either been anecdotal, includes individuals and families who left the welfare rolls before "welfare reform" became law, or over-reports the number of persons geting off welfare.
According to the Journal report, welfare experts across the political spectrum point to the lack of evidence that the nation's welfare reform effort has significantly reduced the number of long-term welfare recipients. These recipients are the persons who tend to have the fewest skills and most serious social problems. There are about 3.8 million American families receiving welfare benefits today about the same as in 1989 (the U.S. population has grown by over 20 million during the past 8 years). Only six states have computer systems in place that are capable of providing data to show how long welfare recipients have been receiving assistance.
Moreover, data about the "success" of welfare reform can be compromised by underlying social and economic trends. Although welfare reform advocates may claim new rules that deny benefits to recipients who have children are effective, data from the federal Centers for Disease control indicate that birthrates are falling in demographic groups that include welfare recipients. Although politicians in New Jersey tout their state's welfare reform program as a major success, the welfare caseload in adjoining Pennsylvania experienced a decline as large as New Jersey's, without a significant change in welfare rules during the same period. The concept of "work" for welfare recipients may also have been redefined to include education and training. Finally, the current strong economy is obviously tied to a decrease in welfare recipients. The article was written by Journal staff reporter John Harwood.
Philadelphia's Crime Data Discarded by FBI
A front-page report in the October 18th issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer states that, citing problems with how Philadelphia police count crime, the FBI is purging Philadelphia statistics for the past 18 months from its national crime surveys. The decision to discard the data followed meetings between police department and FBI representatives. Both sides agrees that the data are inaccurate and should not be used.
The data quality deficiencies resulted from a longstanding counting problem. For at least the last 30 years the crime statistics reported to the FBI by the Philadelphia police haven't reflected the crimes that actually occurred in a given month or year, but rather those the police loggied into their database in that period. Consequently, one in every five crimes that police report in a given year actually occurred the year before. The Philadelphia Police Department pulled the data from the FBI's voluntary reporting system in advance of instituting a new, technologically advanced system that will allow Philadelphia's crime statistics to conform to FBI standards by next year.
The police say they used the old tallying method consistently for many years, so the data are valid for following long-term crime trends. Questions about the police department's reporting methods surfaced last month when Mayor Rendell presented statistics that showed Philadelphia crime dropped 17 percent in the first half of 1997. This data actually included some crimes from late 1996. The department's method has resulted on a skewed picture of crime in Philadelphia. Comparisons with other cities are difficult because time periods don't match. There are flaws in the city's breakdown by types of crime. For example, an Inquirer review of the crime reporting system found that the police overstated the number of assaults in 1995 by 8 percent.
The police department had been reporting its crime data every month, but under the new system will report data to the FBI semi-annually, so there will be more time to review and correct the figures. Inquirer staff writers Clea Benson and Craig McCoy wrote the article.