What Chicago PD Gets Right About Witness Cooperation

What Chicago PD Gets Right About Witness Cooperation.

One of the biggest myths in television crime dramas is that witnesses are eager to help the police. Chicago PD takes a different approach, showing how fear, distrust, and self-preservation often prevent communities from cooperating with criminal investigations.

Chicago PD is a hard-hitting crime drama.  The main character is Hank Voight who assembles the Intelligence Unit.  Voight takes the hardline approach where he will get criminals to talk through threats or torture.  He often overlooks the rules of ethics for police, and has a war-chest of money to help out victims or friendly witnesses.

At the time that I wrote this post, the show has lasted for 13 seasons and will return for a 14th.  One of the cornerstones of the show is to examine the relationship between the police and the community.  Some of the officers on Hank’s team are minorities that grew up and reside where they work.  These officers feel the stress of being a police officer in that they are no longer trusted in their own communities sometimes by their own families solely because they are police.  The writers in this show do an excellent job of outlining the struggles that they go through to be loyal to the community they grew up with and being loyal to their job and co-workers.  One officer goes out of his way to hide the fact that he is on the police force and just states that he works for the city.  Another has friends that trust him, until one of his friends is involved in a murder and has to serve several years in prison; the community becomes mad that he cannot get his charges reduced to probation.

Another ongoing theme is the level of distrust between the police and the community.  This goes against the common theme in older crime shows where the community is helpful and wants to get criminals off the street.  In this show, the community does not want to be involved with the police, usually for two reasons:  One, they do not trust the police and fear that any information they give will be used against them; or two, self-preservation - meaning that if word got out that the witness implicated someone in a crime then their own life is in danger of being murdered by the suspect.

When the community does not cooperate, criminals can then continue to do what they want without recourse, causing the community to become prisoners in their own homes and living in fear.  Chicago PD also discusses the other option the crime victims take – taking matters in their own hands.  This means not involving the police but seeking retribution on the criminal, usually by murder.

This raises the question of how do police get enough evidence in a case when witnesses do not cooperate?  The answer is video tape.  In Chicago PD, they are constantly reviewing footage from traffic cameras, Ring doorbell cameras, police officer body worn cameras, and even videos from buses passing a crime scene.  Chicago PD is very accurate with this as more and more cases rely on video as evidence.  In my experience, the amount of video I receive in a criminal case has greatly increased over the last 10 to 15 years.  At this point I continuously have to give the state a portable hard drive so that they can upload a ton of video footage for each case.

Now, the amount of video requires many attorneys to spend several hours, if not several days, reviewing video evidence.  Although video is great evidence, and can either be damaging to a defense or can completely derail the prosecution.  However, video evidence is not the same as a witness that tells you first-hand what went on and what it was like witnessing a crime or being a victim.  It is the testimony that tends to sway a jury either way.

While Chicago PD often exaggerates police tactics for dramatic effect, its portrayal of fearful communities and reluctant witnesses is one of the most realistic aspects of the series.

TF’s NOTES:  The whole concept of a community that lives in fear of the criminals that continuously commit crimes is very real.  I once had a murder case in a large urban city where the victim was executed in the middle of the day, on the street in front of dozens of people.  The victim and his girlfriend were talking to the killer and his friend.  After 20 minutes the killer shot the victim multiple times.  There were no witnesses to this crime.  Even the girlfriend said that she could not identify the shooter.  The level of fear and the need for self-preservation is a real issue in handling crime in many urban cities.  I am sure these folks wanted justice for the victim, but not at the cost of putting their own lives in jeopardy.  Chicago PD gets this right.