Reward not paid: authorities regularly offer financial incentives for tips that lead to a crime being solved, but criminologists claim large payouts are rare

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 1, 2003 | by Timothy W. Maier

Says another tipster who helped Montgomery police crack a cold murder case but did not receive a dime of the reward, "What do they expect us to do, perform our own autopsies, do DNA comparison and interrogate suspects? What do they want--all that and a box of doughnuts? It's absurd! If they don't pay they should do away with the reward programs and stop misleading the public."

Baliles says citizen informants get paid if they follow the rules and fill out the paperwork. But that's hard to do when the police constantly change the rules--which happened in the Beltway sniper case. Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose initially offered a $500,000 reward for the "arrest and indictment" of the sniper who terrorized the Washington metro area. After the arrest and indictment of Muhammad and Malvo, Moose changed the rules so that no one will be rewarded until every single case involving these alleged perpetrators is tried. Considering there are 19 incidents that left at least 13 people dead across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, it may take years before all the cases are tried and appeals are exhausted.

Moose defended the policy change by saying he was trying to keep defense lawyers from undermining witness testimony by claiming that they are "paid witnesses." But criminologists tell INSIGHT the tipsters probably will be neither needed nor called to testify because authorities have more than enough physical and ballistic evidence to convict the alleged snipers. Fryrear says, "They didn't have to offer money in the sniper case because the public already was coming forward with information."

In the meantime police now are sorting out some 67,000 of the related sniper tips. Authorities are questioning whether Lantz actually called 911 when he spotted the alleged snipers' car at a Maryland rest stop. The trucker says that after he called police he and several other truckers blocked the exit. Authorities claim to have doubts about what happened because they have no record of Lantz making that 911 call. They do, however, have a record of another truck driver, Whitney Donahue of Greencastle, Pa., making a 911 call.

Donahue might have to take a number to collect the reward because others also claim they deserve a piece. How about giving it to Robert Holmes of Washington state, who called the FBI and told the G-men the sniper was Muhammad? Or the Rev. William Sullivan, who claimed the snipers boasted to him about the killings? Then there is Larry Blank, who thinks he has a chance at the reward because he worked at the Frederick, Md., rest stop where the alleged snipers were caught and provided police with information. Perhaps none of these will get any part of the reward if police decide to argue that the forensic technicians are the ones who truly cracked the case.

Meanwhile Lantz, the truck driver who claims to have been first to spot the alleged perps and insists it was he who called 911, says in exasperation, "I don't care if I get the money or not. It should probably go back to the victims."