Part 1 from a special Street Survival Newsline report on a Midwest Gang Investigators Association conference
Inv. Patrick McCarthy, a veteran Chicago cop and past president of the International Assn. of Asian Crime Investigators, has lectured on gang and organized crime issues throughout the US and in Canada and China.
“Too many officers are led to believe that graffiti, signs, colors, alliances are the most important part of gang investigation,” veteran Investigator Pat McCarthy told the attendees of a class he conducted on sharpening your interview skills. “In reality, this is not true. If you had a book that detailed every piece of gang graffiti ever written in the world plus an interpretation of every hand sign and every slang term, how is this going to help you solve gang cases? How will this help you put an armed robber or a Vietnamese home invader in jail?
“This stuff is not nearly as important as developing good investigative skills.
“98% of the time, we are going after a bad guy after he has fled the scene. To solve the crime, we are going to need information. And to get information, you have to know how to talk to people.”
Indeed, good communication is the underpinning of the 4 primary skills McCarthy says you need to be a good gang investigator. Namely, you have to learn how to:
1. Develop intelligence on the groups you are working.
2. Develop informants. (“No cop worth his salt is going to solve cases consistently without informants.”)
3. Conduct more effective interviews (“a major part of the job”).
4. Develop skill at interrogation, so you “know how to get statements and become strong in obtaining confessions.” (“This is especially important with gang people.”)
McCarthy elaborated on each of these points:
Intelligence
“Start gathering information on who your players are before there is a crime. We aren’t firemen, waiting for a call to action. We should be constantly developing intelligence on people we are working” in anticipation that it will be needed.
“We deal with the same people over and over again. It’s typical of gangs that today’s victim is tomorrow’s offender. Take advantage of every opportunity to gather information on them. It is much easier to do this before something serious happens than afterward.
“Find out where bad guys hang out, what vehicles they drive. Get pictures of them whenever you can. Thoroughly interview anybody you arrest; they have a lot of information in their head if they want to share it with you. Use every stop as a tool to gather intelligence.
“Develop your own personal notebook of intelligence. If you see 3 guys in a car who might be ‘bangers, make a note of the tag number, a description of the guys and the car and the location. Several times in my career I have been able to tie my notes to crimes that were later committed.”
Once McCarthy and his partner found out that a Filipino gang bowled every Thursday night at certain lanes. “We would drive by and write down all the plate numbers from the cars parked outside to find out exactly who was there.”
Be creative, McCarthy urged. You see a lot of wanted posters every day. On the street, you may see people who remind you of pictures you have seen on wanted posters. “Use that as PC to pull them over to see if they are the person who’s wanted. I never sat in front of a typewriter that didn’t have PC built into it. It’s all in what keys you type.”
Informants
“We should have a block on this at every training course we go to,” McCarthy declared, “yet this is an area that is rarely covered in police training.” Indeed, a show of hands indicated that no one in the room had any previous exposure to this subject.
“You have to cultivate people as information sources, actively go out and recruit them,” McCarthy said. “I treat everyone I come in contact with as a possible source of information. I want an informant to stick around for the long term, not just for the case I’m working on.”
When working Asian gangs, he habitually does “small favors for business people in the community.” In turn, they tip him off “when any young punks are in from out of town, making the community nervous"--valuable information in light of Asian criminals’ proclivity for high mobility.
Don’t discount someone who doesn’t want to testify in court or be documented by your agency, he warned. “This kind of person may still be a good source of information privately.”
Pick a place to meet where a prospective informant is comfortable, not at the PD or in the PD parking lot. “Let them know that confidentiality is important to you; you are concerned about their safety. Cops have to take time to protect their informants,” because they are taking great risks when they talk to you. McCarthy recalled one instance in which an informant was stabbed 17 times and thrown into a Dumpster because someone didn’t like his police associations.
“Don’t look down on informants. Some of my informants are people I’d like to put a bullet in the head of myself, but we need them. The scum have the best information.”
Keep in mind, though, that informants frequently lie (“How can you tell when an informant is lying? His lips are moving!”). Confront him when you discover false information to keep it to a minimum. “Some cops allow informants to come in and lie their heads off. Not good, because you can get caught up in their lies.”
Note: McCarthy teaches seminars under the auspices of John Reid & Associates on developing informants and improving interviewing and interrogation skills. You’ll find more information on his Street Crimes program Web site.
