Cold case reviews: college students as a force multiplier

Abstract

Purpose

In the absence of new funding dedicated to cold case investigation, innovation is required.

Design/methodology/approach

The number of unresolved homicides in the USA has surpassed a quarter million, and the figure grows by thousands every year. Homicides that do not yield a quick arrest are time and labor intensive. This creates a staffing and resource dilemma for law enforcement administrators, as allocating time for older cases comes at the expense of investigating current ones, and vice versa.

Findings

Universities offer the enthusiastic labor of college students to “defrost” cold cases. One such partnership has been in place for nearly three years in an unusual collaboration between a state police agency and a regional state university. Small groups of students systematically organize, review and present case files. They create investigative recommendations and prioritize cases by solvability. Investigators can then select a case that may be relatively close to an arrest, access the case details very quickly and have the investigative recommendations as a place to begin a renewed investigation. Additionally, cases that are appropriate for new forensic testing or new forensic tools are identified and advanced.

Originality/value

Partnerships such the one described here are rare but lucrative. We recommend new collaborations like ours to reduce the number of unresolved homicide cases.

Citation

Oberweis, T.-.-., Keller, A. and Lewis, M. (2024), "Cold case reviews: college students as a force multiplier", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 47 No. 5, pp. 801-816. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2024-0023