Police in Kansas City had a tough time solving shootings last year because the majority of victims who survived refused to cooperate with authorities.

 

The Kansas City Star found that out of nearly 300 shootings in 2011, 175 victims declined to testify against the alleged shooters. This represented about 60% of such cases.

 

Without victim’s cooperation, police were forced to give up on investigations. Only 10% of shooting cases last year resulted in criminal charges being filed.

 

Among the non-fatal victims who wouldn’t testify was a 15-year-old girl shot by mistake in the side of the head.

 

The reasons for non-cooperation varied. Commonly, the victims did not want to be known as snitches. In many other cases, the refusal to cooperate was caused by lack of faith in the police and the criminal justice system, so the victims were afraid of retaliation by the shooters if they told the police what they knew. In other cases, the victims simply had no idea who fired the shots that hit them and didn’t want to get involved with the police or with a potentially time-consuming court case.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Nonfatal Shootings in KC: Many Bullets, Little Blame (by Christine Vendel, Kansas City Star)