Introduction
Chicago, sometimes called “the Windy City”, is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country; however, it also does have its share of crime resulting in the need to protect witnesses to ensure that a proper prosecution of criminals is implemented.
The city is divided into a standard grid with the financial business district located in the city center with areas related to manufacturing such as factories and warehouses located within the outskirts of the city with various apartment buildings, malls and government offices radiating out from the center. Roughly an hour away from the city, are the various sub-urban districts which consist of middle to high income families.
All in all, Chicago is quite similar to many of the major metropolitan centers of the country with its only distinction being its rather strong weather patterns and higher amounts of factories that are located near the city center as compared to areas such as Manhattan and L.A. that have their factories located farther out from the city.
Problem statement
One of the current problems when it comes to dealing with organized crime syndicates within the city is the fact that they have the propensity of “silencing witnesses” (i.e. killing them) in order to ensure that a conviction is not implemented.
It is due to this that proper witness protection programs need to be implemented to ensure that witnesses continue to survive until they are needed and for a time after a conviction has been made to ensure that they continue to stay alive.
Program Design and Narrative
The program design focuses on using a series of apartments located in the central business district of the city to hide the witnesses in plain sight. The logic behind this plan is that most of the apartments located near the central business district are popular and frequently trafficked, as such, this results in a considerable amount of private security already implemented within the area (Bhuckory, 2013).
It should also be noted that by placing witnesses in apartments located within the city itself, this helps to limit the amount of distance between them and the courthouse. The end result is a decrease in the potential for the witness to be killed on the way to the location.
Proposed Method of Implementation
The proposed method of implementation is actually quite simple; the apartments will be bought under a pseudonym by the Chicago Police Department using the $500,000 in funds that will be provided. Once the apartments have been bought, witnesses can be brought into the apartment via the basement parking level of the building to avoid people from identifying the witness.
After the witness is safely inside the apartment, a guard detail will be placed to look after the witness while at the same time food will be brought in via a person going out to buy the food instead of having the food delivered to the apartment. This helps to further reduce the potential that someone might see the face of the witness and relay it to the criminal syndicate that might be after them (Employee Whistle Blower Protections, 2014).
Once the court date is near, the witness will be brought to the basement garage of the apartment building and from there they will be transported via a car to the courthouse in order to testify against the criminal in question.
Once a sufficient testimony has been given, the witness will be transported back to the apartment where they will wait for the decision of the jury. After a verdict regarding the criminal case has been successfully pushed through, the witness will be guarded at the apartment for at least 2 more weeks before they will be allowed to go back to their ordinary life.
It is expected that through the implementation of such precautions and with the use of the funds that will be donated, more witnesses will be willing to testify in court against the various criminal syndicates that are operating in Chicago since they will know that they will be safeguarded properly by the police (Paunovió, Staršević & Nešić, 2013).
Do note that once every 4 years the apartment where the witnesses are being held will be sold and another apartment will be bought. This is to prevent criminal syndicates from figuring out where the Chicago Police Department is safeguarding its witnesses.
Reference List
Bhuckory, S. (2013). Victim and witness protection: the way forward. Commonwealth Law Bulletin, 39(1), 43-48.
Employee Whistle Blower Protections. (2014). Bank Security Report, 43(5), 3-5.
Paunovió, S., Staršević, D., & Nešić, L. (2013). Identity Management and Witness Protection System. Management (1820-0222), (66), 27-37.