Why Philly's homicide rewards program faces hurdles
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Philadelphia offers one of the nation's best homicide rewards but few people are cashing in as the city struggles to clear murder cases, per an NBC 10 investigation.
Why it matters: The city has nearly 2,000 unsolved murders dating back to at least the 1970s, per city data.
State of play: In 2012, Philadelphia began offering up to $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of homicide suspects to try to increase the Police Department's case clearance rate.
- Philadelphia has only paid out $560,000 in rewards in 29 homicide cases since 2017, according to NBC 10.
- The city logged more than 2,500 homicides over that same period, meaning it paid out about 1% of possible rewards during that span.
The big picture: One criminologist told NBC 10 that Philly's reward system was one of the most generous in the county, yet many tipsters still face potential consequences for cooperating with police, including being viewed as snitches.
- They also don't realize all the bureaucratic tape that must be cleared before they see a penny of the reward money.
How it works: Rewards aren't paid out until the person the tipster provided information about is convicted of the crime.
- Deputy police commissioner Frank Vanore told NBC 10 that tips must provide "essential" information unknown to police beforehand and lead to probable cause for arrests to qualify.
- Even then, a crime reward review board, composed of deputy commissioners, is ultimately tasked with deciding which tips are considered essential.
Zoom in: NBC 10 spoke to one informant who provided information to police in 2020 that led to the conviction of a murder suspect earlier this year.
- But the tipster still hasn't gotten any money, and it can take months before paperwork for payment is processed and approved by high-ranking police brass and the city's managing director.
- Police aren't tracking the number of payouts still pending, per NBC 10.