The City of Salt Lake is offering
rewards for information on crimes. They published a list of rewards
for information on different crimes:
Homicide up to $5,000
Rape $4,000
Kidnapping $4,000
Armed Robbery $3,000
Aggravated Assault $3,000
Arson $2,000
Illegal gun sale $2,000
Toxic dumping $1,000
I was first struck by the political nature of the list. Rape is ahead of kidnapping. Rape is hard to prosecute and kidnapping frequently becomes a federal crime. Toxic dumping made the list, but high speed driving through red lights which is more common didn't make the list.
But my second thought was that this
list is implicitly based on crimes where the victim is a stranger.
Most homicides are within a family and they are hard to rank with
other crimes related to money, unless it involves a stranger. Most
rapes are between people who know each other and they present a
similar problem. With rape there is a greater problem because the
victim is usually still alive and able to testify.
For every kidnapping by a stranger there are 1,000 family abductions.
All in all, I do think the idea of rewarding tipsters and advertising that fact is good public policy. Nearly all crimes, where the victim was a stranger to the perpetrator, are solved are solved by the police following up on a phone call tip.
By the way, what about email tips? I just checked the S.F. Police Department and for tips they only give you a telephone hot line.