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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Queens is the first and so far the only area of New York City using digital cameras to photograph domestic violence victims. Working with the district attorney's office, the New York Police Department weaned the county's 16 police precincts off their instant Polaroids about 14 months ago, starting with three digital cameras in three precincts, then adding five more a few months later, then eight more, until every domestic violence unit in every Queens station house had one. "They were doing digital photographs of offenders. We figured if we could get documentary evidence of what an offender looked like ... we should at least be documenting what the victim looked like at the time of the crime," says Lucia Raiford, director of the NYPD's domestic violence unit, which bought the cameras.
George Reis, who is also a crime scene investigator for the Newport Beach (California) Police Department, estimates that up to a quarter of the 18,500 police departments in the United States have swapped their 35-millimeter and instant Polaroids for digitals. "Digital photography probably started in forensic applications on the West Coast and moved east," he says. His own force went digital in 1991. "You'll see it much more in agencies that are 200 people or less. It's an expensive transition for a large agency -- they have to buy so much more of everything -- and it's hard to coordinate."
David Adkins, principal photographer in charge of the Scientific Identification Division at the Los Angeles Police Department, says digital cameras encourage officers to take more photographs when out on domestic violence calls. "People are conscious of the cost of Polaroids at $1 or $1.25 apiece, and they'll take three or four and feel that's enough. They're excited about the digital technology. They know they can take as many as they want, because there's this perception that digital photography is free photography." When the perpetrator is confronted with the barrage of evidence, "a lot more plea bargains come out of it."
Digital documentation has also resulted in stiffer charges. Deputy District Attorney Johnson says he has filed more felony-level charges and more high-level third degree assault charges when he provides digital photographs. "They're supported by better evidence," he says, describing a case in which a husband knocked down his wife and strangled her into unconsciousness as her face bled. The police took 27 initial photographs, along with follow-up pictures three days later. "Her left eye was swollen shut, and her neck had inflamed to about twice its size because of the trauma," says Johnson. "Because of the digital technology, I was able to see that faster and filed a felony assault instead of a misdemeanor assault."
Prosecutors hope the digital photographs will help them sidestep one of the touchiest issues in pursuing domestic violence cases -- the victim's reluctance or refusal to file a complaint or testify, and the tendency to retract a complaint or testimony later. Sometimes it's for economic reasons if the batterer is the main wage-earner. In localities like Queens with large immigrant populations, victims might have a genuine fear of the INS. "The victim might not speak English or understand what is going on. They're not sure what's going to happen to them in court," says Rita Asen, director of Queens Criminal and Supreme Court programs for Safe Horizon, which counsels victims of crime and abuse. Often, the victim fears retaliation from the defendant or the defendant's family. "It's a tough decision for them to make," says Wanda Lucibello, chief of the special victims unit in the Kings County-Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. "The punishment is pretty minimal in a misdemeanor. We're asking women to participate in cases where there's not a big hammer hanging over the guy's head."
In these victimless, or more euphemistically, evidence-intensive prosecutions, the digital photographs become important, especially in "no-drop" jurisdictions, where prosecutors can pursue a case without the victim's consent, complaint or testimony.
"The evidence can sometimes be put together in a way that can stand on its own," says Lucibello. "Our hope is that these cases can go forward without the victim's participation when we think that's going to be the safe, sound way to go. The injuries can be documented, the scene can be documented -- the broken furniture, the door that's got the dent marks in it because somebody tried to kick it open, the table that got broken, the chair leg that might have been used to menace the victim, the doors, the tables, the blood that gets left behind. All of that is the way these cases get prosecuted without the victim."
If the photographic evidence is strong enough, the police officer who responded to the emergency call can testify for the victim. The "excited utterance" exception to the hearsay rule allows the police officer to testify about statements the victim made right after the assault if it can be proved she made them while still under duress. "We often have a difficult time because what evidence do we have other than the officer saying, she looked scared, she looked upset," says Johnson. "With the digital photography, we're getting higher-quality pictures during the interview. We're able to get pictures of the victim crying, with tears in the eyes. Getting these 'excited utterances' in is a huge victory for us in these victimless prosecutions."
