The HITS system relies on the voluntary submission of information by police agencies throughout the State. To date, these agencies have submitted data on murders, attempted murders, missing persons where foul play is suspected, unidentified dead persons believed to be murder victims, and predatory sex offenses. Police agencies have continued to submit cases to the system from 1987 to the present. This report describes implementation procedures, the HITS computer system, the program data bases, services provided to local police agencies, the HITS staff, the results of requests for investigative assistance, local agency financial participation, and regional expansion efforts. The report concludes that the implementation of HITS demonstrates that the timely and coordinated sharing of comprehensive information is the key to successful violent crime investigations. By identifying and prioritizing solvability factors in violent crime investigations, HITS has also assisted in the redesign of training curricula for homicide investigators. HITS has saved police agencies incalculable hours of investigators' time in obtaining information. 6 tables
Improving the Investigation of Violent Crime: The Homicide Investigation and Tracking System (HITS)
NCJ Number
138618
Date Published
1992
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This report describes the features and benefits of Washington State's Homicide Investigation and Tracking System (HITS) which collects, collates, and analyzes the salient characteristics of all murders and predatory sexual offenses in the State.
Abstract
Date Published: January 1, 1992