New Homicide Investigation Protocol (Bogotá, Colombia)
Axios
Solution types
Problems addressed
Effectiveness

Effective

.

.

.

.

.

Effective

Want to know more about this classification? Check out our methodological manual.

Life periods served
Where the program was applied
Country of application
Description

This is a program that increases coordination, accountability, and leadership capacity among the teams responsible for the criminal investigation of homicides in Bogotá, Colombia.
The protocol was implemented as a pilot for two weeks in December 2015 and began to be officially implemented on January 20, 2016, until December 4, 2016.
The main change was the introduction of “homicide squads,” consisting of a prosecutor, three or four technical crime scene investigators (CSIs) and two detectives. These teams investigated multiple homicide cases together, from the time they were assigned a case through the arraignment hearings, and their creation was intended to change the investigative process by improving the relationship and fostering cooperation among these professionals, teams, and agencies.
Through this, the new investigation protocol sought to improve the quality of criminal investigations and their judicial outcomes, countering the disconnect between the initial crime scene investigation, pretrial investigative actions, and the trial itself.

Impact evaluations

A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) demonstrated the positive impact of this initiative on the investigative capacity of the police and judicial agencies involved. The new procedure resulted in a statistically significant 30% increase in the conviction rate for the treatment group compared to the control group [1].
Also, an improvement was found in indicators of the quality of the investigative process, and an improvement in the rate at which formal charges were brought before the courts. Additional findings also suggest that the new protocol produced well-coordinated teams that communicate more smoothly. In addition, surveys of investigative team members revealed that work motivation, performance, relevance and effectiveness of their roles, and perception of team quality and coordination also improved under the new scheme.
The authors note an increase in the average amount of evidence collected per case and in the number of cases in which an indictment occurs (the quality of evidence increased by 22% to 29% of a standard deviation, and the rate at which an indictment is filed increased by 25% of a standard deviation).
The comparison analysis was conducted using data from the treatment and control groups from January 2016 to May 2019 (to allow time for the different police procedures to take place). Evidence was generated by randomly assigning 1,683 homicide cases. In this regard, homicide cases were drawn to receive either the standard investigation or the new investigation protocol. Random assignment allows the findings to be interpreted as causal.

Bibliographic reference

[1] Collazos, D., Fergusson, L., La Rota, M., Mejía, D., Ortega, D. (2020). CSI in the tropics Experimental evidence of improved public service delivery through coordination. Documento CEDE, (20). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3629933

Information source