Police Investigations Network

KARACHI: The role of the informer in crime detection

By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, July 13: Facing a dearth of modern methods and scientific technology, police investigations in the city rely heavily on mukhbirs or informers, and forensic evidence is relegated to a secondary position.

Many high-profile Karachi cases have been solved as a result of information gathered in this traditional manner, such as the bombing of the US Consulate on March 2, 2006, which killed 54 people and was solved recently.

City police chief Azhar Farooqi told Dawn that during the investigation of a case, the role played by informers and that of forensic investigation are both important.

“The informer’s role is usually pre-investigative and once information has been obtained, the inquiry officer acts on the tip-off and gathers forensic or circumstantial evidence,” said the CCPO.Another police officer admitted on condition of anonymity that “informers are a great help in the detection of crime and we take care to honour our commitments to pay for the information.”

It is important to keep such promises, he said, because if the policeman reneges on them, the mukhbir will approach some other policeman the next time he has saleable information.

An embedded tradition

The role of the mukhbir is so deeply imbedded in the country’s crime detection system that informers generally have legal protection. Sources told Dawn that courts will usually not question the police about the informer or the source of the information they acted upon, and when such inquiries become necessary, they are conducted in the privacy of the judge’s chamber.

Some senior Karachi police officers have, over the years, earned a reputation for keeping their ears to the ground and maintaining an extensive network of informers. Such officials become heavily dependent on their sources and reap benefits by solving cases or busting gangs.

In this context, the town police officer (TPO) of Clifton town, SP Azad Khan, said that informers’ role in policing is not limited to India or Pakistan but extends to Western countries where police operations often depend on tip-offs and inside information.

“The US, for instance, has institutionalised the role of the informer by setting up a help line where anyone can pass on information about any crime,” he commented. “The informers’ identity is kept secret and monetary incentives are offered.”

“Mukhbir ka anjaam”

According to ASP Sohail Zafar Chattah, TPO of Site town, there are generally three motives behind giving police inside information. The most obvious one is a financial benefit but in other cases, the informer may know the police officer personally. ASP Chattah added that, sometimes, a mukhbir tries to use a police officer by passing information to settle a personal score.

“Members of criminal gangs often develop differences over the division of booty; so, a disgruntled accomplice could turn informer and become the means by which the gang is busted,” said the official. “He is not in a position to sell his information, of course, but he can negotiate an assurance that he will not be prosecuted.”

However, passing information is by no means a safe business. A police officer said that the department sometimes find the bodies of informers, shot dead by criminals who discovered who sold them out. These bodies bear a slip of paper warning “Mukhbir ka anjaam” [the fate of an informer].

Monetary gains

Informers are sometimes paid out of a secret, discretionary fund which is not audited. This fund was created under the defunct district system to be used at the discretion of each district’s SSP. It is currently controlled by the city police chief.

However, a police officer said that it is quite rare for the city police chief to be approached in the context of paying an informer. “Policemen are generally not dependent on the secret fund and pay the informer from their own resources,” he commented.

In cases of reward money, however, an informer cannot claim any right over the announced amount.

Even if a criminal bearing head-money is arrested as a result of a tip-off, the informer has to stick with whatever deal he made with the police officer.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/14/local10.htm

DNA Testing can solve most robbery cases

A NEW TOOL FOR POLICE

Since it was introduced in New York, DNA sampling has emerged as an important tool in hard-to-solve cases like burglaries, in which, according to the New York Times, arrests are made in only about 15 percent of reported offenses. In 2004, a pilot program launched in Queens called Biotracks, which netted 23 suspects tied to 34 burglary cases in a nine-month period, according to the Times. It led to the arrest of one man, Robert Medina, who pled guilty to five burglaries after DNA on a scarf he left at a crime scene was matched to a sample taken from him after a previous felony arrest.

The same procedure can be used with sex offenses, which are also difficult to solve. In a recent case, DNA from a Queens man convicted on a drug-related charge was matched to a sample saved from a rape kit that included a taunting note left for the victim. As a result, he was found guilty of first-degree rape and second-degree burglary.

Speaking in 2006, Police Commissioner Kelly asserted that DNA testing had led to the arrests of 210 sex offenders. New York City. The technology spurred the elimination last year of the state’s five-year statue of limitation for rape cases.

Perhaps the strongest case for expansive DNA sampling comes from England, which, in the last decade, has embarked on the world’s most aggressive DNA gathering effort. The country’s DNA database maintains over 4 million samples, covering about 6 percent of the population, more than ten times the rate at which DNA samples are collected in the United States. The database has yielded close to 3,000 crime scene matches per month, according to NewScientist.com, including “hits for 15 murders, 45 rapes and sexual offenses and 2,500 car, theft and drug crimes.”

At the same time, DNA sampling can help prove the innocence of individuals wrongly convicted of a crime. The Innocence Project, which uses DNA to try to win the release of the wrongfully convicted, has helped exonerate 201 individuals in the United States, and 23 in New York State. Most recently, DNA testing was used to exonerate Byron Halsey, the New Jersey man who had served 19 years in jail for the murder of the seven and eight-year old children of Halsey’s girlfriend. DNA testing instead implicated a neighbor who had testified against Halsey during the trial. In a statement that shows the powerful impact of DNA, the victims’ mother said, “I knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina. It didn’t make sense to me that he could have done this. I always had my doubts, but I didn’t know what to do about them. I am thankful that the DNA testing has identified who really did this to my children and that Byron is being released today.”

Gotham Gazette, New York, USA