Re:Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA t...
by neodymiumphish on Monday February 08, 2021 @01:09PM
(#26067959)
This absolutely depends on the agency/situation.
My agency used to rate our agents based on the amount of cases that led to convictions. Years back, we recognized that disproving an allegation was equally worthwhile, and settings promotions/evaluations based on "proving or disproving" the allegation was much more objectively reasonable than focusing strictly on convictions. There is still a reference to case completion speed, value of recovered money/property, and conviction results (providing a thorough enough investigation that the suspect is convicted for X years, for example), but disproving an allegation or proving that a different person committed the crime is far more appreciable to the agency.
We're fortunate in that we are a federal agency, instead of local/state level, where they can be significantly more busy with countless lesser offenses, while still running some extremely high-profile stuff, but I think it would be a huge boon to law enforcement if states mandated an approach focused on this objective metric that isn't strictly on "getting him".
My agency used to rate our agents based on the amount of cases that led to convictions. Years back, we recognized that disproving an allegation was equally worthwhile, and settings promotions/evaluations based on "proving or disproving" the allegation was much more objectively reasonable than focusing strictly on convictions. There is still a reference to case completion speed, value of recovered money/property, and conviction results (providing a thorough enough investigation that the suspect is convicted for X years, for example), but disproving an allegation or proving that a different person committed the crime is far more appreciable to the agency.
We're fortunate in that we are a federal agency, instead of local/state level, where they can be significantly more busy with countless lesser offenses, while still running some extremely high-profile stuff, but I think it would be a huge boon to law enforcement if states mandated an approach focused on this objective metric that isn't strictly on "getting him".