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Philly Police Discuss Expanding Witness Relocation Program

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police commanders have proposed expanding a small-scale witness protection program that offers new addresses to people willing to testify against violent criminals.

For about a decade, police have been using the little-known, relatively low-budget program to help about 40 people a year relocate to new homes inside the city or its immediate suburbs.

The program is a poor cousin of the more famous federal witness protection program. Participants keep their identities, are rarely very far from their old neighborhoods, and usually stay in their new homes for only a year or two before leaving the program.

But police say it has been an effective way to protect witnesses when they agree to testify against drug dealers and gang members whose friends and relatives might be their neighbors.

Internal police documents obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer said some commanders wanted to raise the number of participants in the program to around 80 a year, at a cost of around $160,000.

A department report also warned of the need to close a “dangerous gap” in the current system.

Now, witness relocations are largely carried out by the District Attorney’s office, but prosecutors often do not get involved in a case until several days after a suspect has been arrested.

The department report said police should have the ability to relocate witnesses without going to prosecutors first, a change that would allow officers to get people protection more quickly, the Inquirer reported Sunday.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said no action has been taken on the proposal so far, in part because of concerns from prosecutors as to how the system would operate. District Attorney Lynne Abraham supported the proposal, but neither her office nor the police department had been able to identify a source of funding for the expansion, her spokeswoman said.

The department has heavily publicized its witness protection efforts in recent weeks because of the fatal shooting of a 10-year-old boy.

Faheem Thomas-Childs was struck by a stray bullet on Feb. 11 during a shootout between two groups of men outside his elementary school.

Since then, police have received dozens of anonymous phone tips from people who say they know the identities of the shooters, but few have been willing to step forward and finger the suspects formally.

Some neighborhood residents who witnessed or have knowledge of the shooting are afraid that members of the drug gangs allegedly responsible for the battle will retaliate against witnesses, Johnson said.