“No Snitch” does No Good

Sitting across the desk from me was a police investigator who had tears welled up in his eyes. He didn’t know what to do because he was working a case in which a child was sexually abused, but neither parent was cooperating with investigators.

My heart sank.

Because without witnesses, there was no telling if and when the abuse might stop.

I’d like to tell you that this situation happened to me only once as a prosecutor, but sadly, that feeling of disappointment and despair was all too familiar.

I had many cases where the only thing standing between a criminal and a conviction was an uncooperative witness.

There was the murder of a 19-year-old college student who was the victim of a drive by shooting. Right car, wrong person. …show more content…
When I won cases without cooperative witnesses at trial, it usually came at a personal cost. It takes extraordinary efforts of investigators and first responders to build a case based on forensic and circumstantial evidence.

I can assure you our law enforcement community is committed to keeping our streets safe. They sacrifice their kids’ sporting events, family gatherings, favorite activities, and time with their loved ones to investigate criminal cases.

However, their efforts are crippled by this “no snitch” policy.

Our community must recognize that this is a serious problem. If we turn a blind eye to this “no snitch” code, violence is perpetuated, and bad people walk free.

We need to focus our efforts on helping witnesses feel safe when they cooperate with police. We can start by rejecting this “anti-police” mentality and instead encourage building trust between our law enforcement and our citizens.

As a Judge, my duty is to uphold the integrity of our justice system, the laws of the State of Ohio, the Ohio constitution and United States