Speaking of Alaska, have a look at this pending law:

The Alaska House on Sunday approved a bill allowing police to detain reluctant witnesses to felonies.

[...]

Under the proposed law, police would be allowed to subpoena, photograph, fingerprint and hold witnesses or people who have information that would provide material aid to felony investigations.

[...]

A witness who refuses to be photographed or fingerprinted could be charged with a misdemeanor and receive jail time of up to 10 days.

So if you were unfortunate enough to have witnessed a felony in Alaska, well, welcome to the machine. Better hope it’s not a long investigation.

This bill was passed as part of a special session called to deal with gang violence in Anchorage (yes, apparently, there is gang violence in Anchorage). Now, gangs have been known to bump off people who witness gang-related shootings. Particularly people who have shown a willingness to testify. So if Alaska’s lawmakers are going to compell testimony with detainment and threats of jail time, surely they’re also going to appropriate a little extra money for witness protection, right?

Nope.

Representatives turned down another amendment that would have required police who detain witnesses to have a policy to protect those witnesses from retaliation.

Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, said the new law could be putting people in danger if they are forced to testify, so they should be protected.

Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, who voted against the amendment, said it would have created an unfunded mandate on police departments and municipalities.

Sounds like a great way to turn violent crime witnesses into target practice. Great idea, lawmakers!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 3:58 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.