Technological advances fuel decision to bring back unit to investigate unsolved homicides
11:38 PM CST on Sunday, February 10, 2008
By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning NewsÂ
Hundreds of unsolved
homicides from Dallas' recent past are getting another look with the
rebirth of a police cold-case squad this month.
For six
years, the city has been without a full-time unit of detectives to
investigate such cases, officials say, and the restoration of the
five-person squad signifies a shift in priorities for the department's
crimes against persons division.
"We've had a lot of
advances in technology, and we continue to have a lot of advances in
technology, so there needs to be a continuous review," said Assistant
Chief Ron Waldrop, who oversees the department's
criminal-investigations bureau.
News that the unit is
reforming is particularly welcome to Pat Keaton, who works with the
families of murder victims as the department's victim-services
coordinator.
"It's very, very important to victims and
victim families, survivors," Ms. Keaton said. "They still want
justice."
Mark Woolsey seeks that justice. His brother
Kenneth was killed in an apparent random shooting in March. A passing
motorist drove up beside the rented vehicle his wife was driving in
northeast Dallas and fired one shot, striking Mr. Woolsey.
A break in the case would be a blessing for the family, Mark Woolsey said.
"All of us really want to see justice done in this situation," he said.
"We want to see the person responsible arrested, and we want to see him
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The cold-case squad of the 1990s solved dozens of cases, including 46 of 153 assigned from 1996 to 2000.
But by the beginning of the decade, the unit had mostly dissolved
through attrition as more resources were devoted to patrol duty.
Since 2002, the department has assigned two detectives in the
special-investigations unit to work cold cases. However, that unit also
handles officer-involved shootings, deaths in custody and other
investigations.
"We're really going to be able to take
the time to look at these older cases and give them attention," said
Lt. Craig Miller, commander of the homicide unit.
The
Dallas police homicide unit cleared about 58 percent of its cases last
year and 82 percent in 2006. The national homicide clearance rate for
2006 was about 61 percent. National figures for 2007 are not yet
available.
Department officials estimate that at least 700 homicides committed since 1990 have never been solved.
Though the use of DNA evidence has grown increasingly common in solving
old cases, the simple passage of time can often lead to a big break,
investigators say.
Witnesses once reluctant to talk for
fear of retribution may overcome those fears, or they may have an ax to
grind today that they didn't years ago.
"Those cases
where you do have witnesses and you do have potential suspects,
obviously those cases need to be researched," said recently retired
veteran homicide Detective P.E. Jones.
Detective Jones
and other retired detectives could be part of that process. The new
squad's supervisor, Sgt. Larry Lewis, has said he hopes to secure
funding to bring a few of them back to work part time to assist with
cold-case investigations.
The Dallas County district
attorney's office is also renewing its focus on cold cases. District
Attorney Craig Watkins has gained national attention for seeking
criminal exonerations based on DNA evidence.
But Dallas
County prosecutor Josh Healy said his boss is also interested in
reviewing old cases for the sake of punishing those responsible.
"The DNA stuff will help in putting the right guy behind bars as well," Mr. Healy said.
Mr. Healy will work with the Dallas police unit in the coming months
and hopes to add another prosecutor and an investigator to his own
cold-case team in the future.
The rising interest in cold cases is not unique to Dallas.
Many big-city police departments cut back on cold-case squads as
homicide tallies dropped nationally in the late 1990s, said Thomas
Petee, a senior consultant for the Center for Government at Auburn
University who has researched homicides. In recent years, he says,
things have changed.
"Cold-case units have come into vogue in the last couple years," Mr. Petee said.
The squads at other big-city departments in the state appear to support that notion.
The Houston police cold-case unit was formed in 2004 and includes one
lieutenant, two sergeants, two officers, one civilian employee and
three retired officers, according to the department's Web site.
The San Antonio Police Department assigned a full-time detective to
work cold cases in 2000 and has since added a second full-time
detective and a third who works cold cases part time, according to the
department's Web site.
The Dallas squad will have four detectives who will report to Sgt. Lewis.
Their work will be vital to families that homicide victims leave
behind, said Ms. Keaton, the Police Department's victim services
coordinator.
"It just helps them to be able to cope with
everyday life because they go around still with this missing part of
their family," she said.
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