Dec. 1, 2020 • Volume 23, Issue 23 • Complimentary • BlufftonSun.com
WEAR A MASK!
INSIDE • Big holiday plans to be scaled back this year 12A • Safe Santa to visit fans at ArtWare on Hilton Head 18A • Parade, giant menorah lighting set for Dec. 13 20A • Reminisce gift shop to close 22A • District program for boys fosters positive behavior 26A
Intelligence unit uses technology to expedite prosecution By Gwyneth J. Saunders CONTRIBUTOR
Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone began his career 30 years ago prosecuting drug cases in Richland County. Back then, if a narcotics team raided a suspected dealer’s home, they might expect to find drugs and guns. But if they found the dealers’ notebooks – in which they recorded their purchases and sales – the discovery was a game-changer that could bring down an entire ring. Today, the big score on a drug raid isn’t a paper notebook; it’s the dealers’ cellphones, which can contain their contacts, evidence of their interaction with other suspects, and even photographic evidence of crimes. Stone calls the development of technology and its use by lawbreakers the biggest change in the criminal justice system during his time as a prosecutor. “There are all types of technology that didn’t exist when I started as a prosecutor,” Stone said. “Because of that, the way law enforcement catches criminals and the way the courts prosecute has also changed.”
To combat crime, the New York Police Department in the late 1990s began using a computer comparison statistics program (COMPSTAT) as a data management tool, combining crime analysis and geographic information. This information demonstrated to police that, often, the same offenders were committing crimes all over the place, avoiding repeated charges for similar offenses because the various precincts were not comparing notes. The introduction of intelligence-led policing had such an impact on reducing crime in New York, it began to spread to other cities. Stone and other prosecutors across the country are now employing a similar strategy in their prosecution. The use of “intel” has shifted the focus of prosecution from the types of crimes being committed to the types of people who are committing them. Among the benefits are better prosecution and more appropriate sentencing, Stone said. The 14th Judicial Circuit covers Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties, an area of 3,200 square miles. The percentage of criminal acts is carried out by a fairly set group of
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FOURTEENTH CIRCUIT SOLICITOR’S OFFICE
Dylan Hightower, left, investigator with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, uses a digital pointer to highlight a phone record during a jury trial, as Solicitor Duffie Stone reviews the record for the jury.
individuals, according to Stone. He cites the “Pareto Principle,” a concept named for a 19th century Italian economist who discovered 80 percent of the country’s land was owned by 20 percent of its people. This 80/20 rule
applies in a variety of other disciplines, Stone said, including crime in the 14th Circuit, where roughly 80 percent of criminal offenses are committed by
Please see INTEL on page 8A