“We have to find better ways to incentivize people to come forward with information, and then when people do come forward with information, we probably have to find better ways to protect them.”
scrutiny. Gray died in April 2015 from injuries sustained in the back of a Baltimore police transport van. In turn, some criminologists say the city saw a related effect — that criminals were emboldened by the perception that officers weren’t policing.
A broader definition of the effect — that violence escalates when communities lose confidence in police — is harder to prove. A study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice recounted the theories: The breakdown can lead to people taking matters into their own hands, to honor codes that encourage people to respond with violence to threats and disrespect, to more “predatory” violence because offenders believe victims and witnesses will not contact police.
The study also noted previous research that found when trust in government erodes, homicide rates increase — before the American Revolution, in the Civil War, and during the political turmoil in the 1960s and ’70s.
But more research is needed to determine whether that’s what’s happening today, the study concluded.
Davis says he’s been working to repair community relations and has become a fixture at public forums where residents air grievances. Without the public’s help, he knows police can’t do their jobs.
Dante Barksdale, an outreach coordinator for Safe Streets, said more needs to be done to protect witnesses. He said prosecutors and police are not careful enough in keeping the identities of cooperating witnesses confidential. When police play witnesses off each other, for instance, saying one had cooperated, the stigma for that witness is impossible to shake, and potentially dangerous.
Retired Baltimore homicide detective John F. Riddick said he has seen detectives, frustrated by a lack of cooperation and under pressure to solve cases, coerce tipsters and force confidential informants to testify in court. In the past, this network of informants was never expected to go to court and had been the lifeblood of investigations.
He also called the department’s witness protection program “a joke.” He said many Baltimore witnesses have a homing instinct, returning to the city after being placed out of state — “If you grow up in a neighborhood all your life, that’s all you know.
“I can understand why people wouldn’t get involved” by cooperating with police, Riddick said.
Davis acknowledged that the department needs to improve. “We have to find better ways to incentivize people to come forward with information, and then when people do come forward with information,” he said, “we probably have to find better ways to protect them.”