Cases Present Special Problems
Good news on the crime-fighting front - if you live in one of the nation’s big cities, that is. Violent offenses have declined there.
In peaceful, family oriented Spokane, meanwhile, 1997 ended again on a string of murders. Some of them suggest a pattern, and authorities are trying to decide if a serial killer is on the loose.
As a new year begins, a special four-detective task force of police and sheriff’s officers is trying to unravel a collection of 18 unsolved homicides involving women. The killings date back to 1984, but seven of them have occurred in the past five months.
The response by authorities is admirable, especially considering the general thanklessness of it.
You see, most (but not all) of the victims were involved in prostitution and/or with drugs, or were associated with locales where prostitution and drug sales and use were known to take place. Such killings don’t stir as much public outrage and fervor as if the victims were, say, preschool teachers. It’s not the kind of murder spree to ignite a spare-no-expense demand by taxpayers insisting on action.
At the same time, some friends and family members of victims have implied that law enforcement’s response has indeed been less energetic than it should be - or would be under more genteel circumstances.
For their part, task force leaders say they have treated, and will continue to treat, all homicides with equal seriousness.
Trouble is - hair-trigger critics, take note - the lifestyles chosen by several of the victims create special difficulties for investigators.
When you mingle with hookers and drug pushers, the people most likely to provide detectives with clues about your death or disappearance are not people who eagerly seek out the police.
When you live much of your life in shadows, detached from family and conventional society, you leave less evidence of where you might have been, or who you might’ve been with.
When you drift along nomadic paths from living accommodation to living accommodation - even from community to community - you shed some of the identity that gives investigators the framework for unraveling a mystery.
There is ample sermon fodder here about the perils of getting mixed up in unseemly behavior, but bigger values are at stake. Equal and consistent enforcement of the law, for instance. The sanctity of life, for instance.
The assurance that all citizens can turn to police for protection, for instance.
Spokane and Spokane County authorities are responding on those principles, even though the labor-intensive strategy of setting up a special task force is costly and diverts some of their attention from other cases.
Citizens who have information - or think they might have - should not hesitate to call Crime Check (456-2233) to share it with detectives. Let the task force decide if it’s worth checking out.
For their part, law enforcement officials should share as much information with the public as they can without compromising their investigation. Alert citizens have been known to provide key evidence once they learned a seemingly mundane observation might bear on a crime.
Given a good partnership between Spokane-area citizens and the law, 1998 might end with the kind of downturn in violent crime that places like New York are enjoying.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Floyd For the editorial board