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October 07, 2009

Comments

Adrian

"The most basic thing that must be done is to ensure that witnesses who see crimes feel like they can report them without fear of violent retaliation."

I'm pretty sure every major city has an anonymous tip line. At least, Rochester NY does. Ultimately though this issue runs straight into the right of an accused to confront their accusers.

A.E.

It's not necessarily the making of the tip itself but the follow-up protection during and after the trial.

Pplus

If there are anonymous tiplines everywhere they aren't publicized enough. Areas of high violence (Newark and Camden NJ to name a few local areas) should apply however much of their budget is needed to community awareness programs that would let people know about ways to be able to share information without fear of retribution. Ideally, every citizen should know by heart, a number which can be called to anonymously share information with authorites. It should be just as second nature as 911 is. I think the biggest obstacle is to gain the public's trust. People have to be confident that numbers won't be traced an people won't be tracked down, no matter what information is shared. The only way to acheive this is through time and repetition.

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